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	<title>ThePhotoFinishes.com</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 13 May 2012 02:39:25 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Photoshop 6 Beta &#8211; the 3D Commands</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-6-beta-the-3d-commands/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-6-beta-the-3d-commands/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 May 2012 02:39:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[3D]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1086</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Lets be honest, this reviewer was not looking for much in the PS6 3D set of commands. After all this was just going to match the  4year old 3D and beveling commands of Xara&#8217;s Designer Pro at double the price and half the speed. And the first part of our tests seemed to confirm that:

The fruit of 3D labor of  about 2 hours &#8211; text extrusion, Pinterest logo be-bevelled, and a cone mesh. The only one of the 3 active 3D layers not easily doable in  Xara Designer  Pro was &#8211; the cone mesh. And sure enough, the ops were slow relative to the blitz speed of Xara.
In fact lack of Ooomph is the next important story in PS6&#8242;s 3D command set:

The story of the 3D tests was the slowness of the commands relative to Xara and PS6 itself. Also the number of tests that PS6 just refuesd to do altogether. See the screen shot above. During a total 3 1/2 hour testing session, I saw the above refusal more than a dozen times. Now the OS is Windows 7 the latest patches and the machine is Pentium Dual-Core  2nd edition from 2 years and change ago.  But getting PS6 3D to do [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>DPReview Advantage</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/dpreview-advantage/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/dpreview-advantage/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:14:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogroll]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[comment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1079</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are a number of websites that provide excellent camera reviews such as Popular Photography Magazine, Digital Camera Review, and Imaging Resources . But my favorite has been and continues to be DPReview. The English website is very thorough in their testing, has a great Blog where photographers worldwide chat politely [something the reddit.com website could use a lesson in]about the latest and greatest while DPReview itself stays fairly well current with the latest cameras, software and photo accessories.
But the key feature of DPReview is its Camera Image Comparison  tool.

First user can see the same shot taken by four different cameras of identically the same diorama. This is great because it allows apple and apples like comparisons. Even better users can move the exposure square any where on the diorama to see color rendition, sharpness of lines and edges, and noise and other aberrations. Users can also switch between jpeg and raw [if available] and among the various major ISO setting supported by the camera.  This is priceless.
&#160;
For example , I was recently looking up a review of the latest Pansonic Lumix ZS20 compact camera. The Lumix line has been my compact camera of choice over the past 5-6 years for quick and [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Smartphone Camera Performance</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/smartphone-camera-performance/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/smartphone-camera-performance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:13:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=926</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With so many smartphones coming out in all sorts of versions its hard to compare products. Here are two places that I go for phone comparison data and particularly for the still camera and video camera performance benchmarks.
 PhoneArena

It is fairly simple to setup the comparison &#8211; and the review ratings are often bang on. However I await data for smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S2.  Also what I really want is a comparison of the still camera and video taking capabilities of the latest smartphones. And I have found a second site for that
GSMArena offers  just great camera comparisons like the following:


Note the camera comparison is truly robust &#8211; click on the Gray Chart tab on the bottom of the image and a new image is brought up for further side by side comparison. Ditto for the Color Poster tab. Note the green rectangle in the middle of the image. That is movable with the mouse &#8211; just click and drag for more comparative views of the image. Finally the drop down widgets allow users to change the selected smartphones being compared very easily.
And there is a video comparison as well:

Again the tabs along the bottom of the image allow you to change the comparison [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why Did Google Close Picnik?</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/why-did-google-close-picnik/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/why-did-google-close-picnik/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:04:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1063</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Back in 2008 this blog identified Picnik as one of the best online image editing sites in the business.  Two years later in 2010 we were no less enthusiastic about Picnik after Google bought the software and added it to Picasa. And ye Editor is not alone as other recent reviews  put Picnik well above such competition as Splash up and even Photoshop Express &#8211; see here and then here. And Picnik puts the $1 billion dollar Instagram to shame. So why get rid of a very good thing?
Google Motives
Here is the official announcement on the Picnik site:

And here is Google&#8217;s official explanation:
Since joining Google in 2010, the Picnik team has been working on Picnik while helping to create photo editing magic in Google’s products. But now we get to focus. Picnik will be closing its doors on April 19, 2012. Below you’ll find some frequently asked questions to help you through the shutdown process. If your question isn’t answered, visit the Forum to get more help.
But there are other possibilities. Google is locked in a mortal battle with Facebook for Social Media Eyeballs and Time. Hey the Campbellford Library now has displaced Google with Facebook as its home page for [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Burst Mode Exposures</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/burst-mode-exposures/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/burst-mode-exposures/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Apr 2012 02:01:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1053</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Burst mode exposures are thought of as an action shot specialty. Any sports action shots provide good example &#8211; from diving board shots thru Nascar rumbles to rodeo competitions. If you use burst mode at anywhere from 3-8 frames per second[the upper limit for most good SLRs], you will likely find 1 to 2 super frames within the burst mode sequence. The following is an example from a rodeo this past summer:

Kids Bull Riding
But recent results from a a local photo contest for the past few years suggest burst mode shooting works well for portraits as well. It allows you as photographer to naturally follow the subject and not force or elicit a specific raction but rather catch the changing human mood as wiftly as it changes, Yes you could use video frame for the same purpose but without the precise exposure control of a &#8220;still&#8221; shot or a size greater than 2.5Mpixels. The example below shows just such a sequence from the

3 Kids on a park bench
Now the photographer has her choice from not just  the above 4 images but actually 10 framess to choose from &#8211; some really great family candid imagess. In sum, burst mode is not [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Photoshop CS6 Beta &#8211; The Blur Gallery</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-cs6-beta-the-blur-gallery/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-cs6-beta-the-blur-gallery/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1037</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
The Blur Gallery appears to be incomplete in the first beta of Photoshop 6. And I sincerely hope so and shall show you why here. You can find the Blur Gallery under the Filter Menu &#8211; choose anyone of Field Blur, Iris Blur or Tilt-Shift Blur &#8211; and then screen above will appear. The sidebar on the right will be temporarily replaced with the Blur Gallery options &#8211; Field Blur, Iris Blur and Tilt-Shift Blur plus an empty Blur effects Tab.
Tilt-Shift Blur

As you can see from the +screenshot above the Tilt Shift blur just does not work for the image used. Areas are blurred that should not be and areas are left unblurred which should be blurred. Now I tried adding two more Tilt Shift Blurs to the image at the top and bottom using the tilt=rotate capability so the blur gradation lines were horizontal  and thus the blur at the top could be corrected. But that simply did not work &#8211; the three Tilt Shifts combined in very strange ways but not the accumlated blur I had hoped for[the last blur pinned on dominated the other two]. Now there maybe a CTL+?? trick when applying a second or third button but [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Photoshop 6 Beta &#8211; Cropping and Photo Composition</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-6-beta-cropping-and-photo-composition/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-6-beta-cropping-and-photo-composition/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:28:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1022</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Photoshop CS6 beta has been released for free public tasting and trial runs and after two years there are lots of new features to like, especially for dyed in the wool photofinishers. But the most obvious change in Photoshop CS6 is that the UI has been streamlined to look more like Adobe Lightroom 4 or, dare I say it, Corel PaintShop Pro x4 [see our upbeat review here]. Users have even more control over the layout of their Photoshop 6 workspace but that is another story.
The real story for Photoshop is the return to providing more refined photo editing and finishing features. The past few editions have seen the addition of features that some of my graphic artists friends absolutely love but this photofinisher has yet to use &#8211; like the complete 3D set of menu options. Credit competition from Apple&#8217;s Aperture 3, Adobe&#8217;s own Lightroom 4 and Corel PaintShop Pro X4  which all  have also improved dramatically in the past year and all emphasize photo finishing.
Cropping in PS6 Beta
This first of several tutorials on  the Photoshop CS6 beta will look at the humble cropping tools. Note the plural &#8211; the Perspective Cropping tool now has its own place on the toolbar[second inline [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-6-beta-cropping-and-photo-composition/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Autodesk Sketchbook vs Corel Painter 12</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/autodesk-sketchbook-vs-corel-painter-12/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/autodesk-sketchbook-vs-corel-painter-12/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:56:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=979</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Most photo editors have good brush capabilities. Adobe Photoshop takes it to a new level and allows users to customize their brushes much like Photoshop Styles &#8211; to a surprising extent. But the best painting tool on the market has been Corel Painter with its huge set of brushes, their amazing set of properties, their interaction with Wacom plus other pens/stylii plus their ability to interact [or not] with the previous brush strokes and the underlying paper/media used. That is the Corel Painter advantage. So why the comparison with Autodesk Sketchbook ?
Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011

As one can see from the screenshot Sketchbook hardly has the brush and media prowess of Painter. the choice of brush type is not nearly the same as in Painter, the brush properties are even slimmer. Why would  Autodesk even want to offer such a limited product? Well there are three potential answers to the question. First, Autodesk&#8217;s other CAD and 3D tools require more natural painted surfaces and 2D paint objects than ever before. Second, the price at $55US is compelling versus the $277 price for Corel Painter 12 on Amazon. Finally, Sketchbook has added UI features that make Sketchbook very quick and easy to use.
First [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The New ThePhotoFinishes.com</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/the-new-thephotofinishes-com/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/the-new-thephotofinishes-com/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:26:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogroll]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=899</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The new ThePhotoFinishes.com recognizes the reality of the past year, almost all of the postings for the site have been to the Picthat blog.  In our theOpenSourcery com web development site, the consistent recommendation has been to use a CMS with WordPress being the top choice. So now we are eating our own stew and have made the blog the home page for thewebsite. ThePhotoFinishes is using the latest WordPress 3.31 blog edition and as promised here is the new look for the website using the Magazine Basic theme. The old website point of entry can be found here and material will be [finally!!] updated and/or imported into the new digs.
]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Nokia 808 PureView 41MPixel Camera  Phone</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/nokias-41mpixel-camera-phone/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/nokias-41mpixel-camera-phone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:33:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=935</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
In the previous PF blog post on the booming compact cameras and their rapid technology improvements, credit was given to smartphones for stimulating those changes. However, compact cameras have an advantage that smartphones could not easily crack &#8211; better lensing with optical zoom capabilities beyond the reach of smartphones. Then the article goes on to show some of the other unique features that compact cameras have and toasted Samsung&#8217;s WB850F model for being oh-so-close to a camera phone. Well camera makers got snookered.
Its A Nokia Still  Camera
Well surprise surprise. The smartphone makers, Nokia no less, have done it again to the camera makers and have out innovated them. With the Nokia Purview 808, users are presented with a camera phone that uses a 41Mpixel sensor and special Carl Zeiss f2.4 lens to deliver ultra-sharp, noise free 2, 3, 5, and 8 Mpixel still images and video at 1080P that are bright and clear. The camera is up and running in a second and clicka picture in less. Because its a fixed lens with software zoom there is no loss of light on zoom or high tele-zoom  image pinching distortion in optical lenses. Clearly this is a camera with the phone [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>3 Compact Cameras Zooming with Features</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/3-compact-cameras-zooming-with-features/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/3-compact-cameras-zooming-with-features/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:15:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=909</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Spoiler update: See the bottom of this page&#8230;

In our previous post on Compact Cameras  vs Smartphones, the advantage appears to be swinging to smartphones as they slowly approach compact cameras in the quality of their  camera components. But smartphones [smartphones really means  "smartphones and tablets" for most of the following remarks] have 3 other key features over compact cameras:
1)Smartphones have apps, many free, that cannot only help in taking still and video images but also  help process  pictures/videos taken on the  smartphones. Exposure corrections, cropping, adding captions, resizing , rotating are some of the the simple fixes that make the media ready to be delivered onto the web on social media sites or your/friends desktops;
2)Smartphones have the Internet connections to make image deliveries possible &#8211; so images and media  get sent in a timely fashion;
3)Smartphones have 4 other winning characteristics: they are light,small, have a long battery life and have high utility in other capacities[telephoning, communication, gaming, eBooks, finding things, etc] such that they are much more likely to be &#8220;on the picture-taking scene&#8221;  than your favorite camera.
So sales of point-and-shoot cameras fell by 30 per cent in value last year as people used their smartphones more often than compact cameras. Thus there are some [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Will That Be a Smartphone or a Compact Camera?</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/will-that-be-a-smartphone-or-a-compact-camera/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/will-that-be-a-smartphone-or-a-compact-camera/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:49:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=883</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
iPhone 4 vaults to the top but begins to trail off in recent months
If you follow the Flickr Camera usage statistics, then the answer to question of smartphone vs compact camera is smartphone.  Last year compact camera sales fell by 30% as fixed lens smartphone cameras started to displace fixed lens compact cameras [in 2010 48% of compact camera sales were fixed lens, by 2011 that had dropped to 37% - see here]. So it is no surprise  that the most popular camera  on Flickr is not a digital SLR or compact camera but the iPhone 4.
Look at the follow table for smartphone camera specs vs a top of the line single lens compact camera:



Spec
Apple
 iPhone 4s
Nokia
Lumia 900
Samsung
Note 
FUJIFilm
FinePix x100 


sensor
8Mpixel
 8Mpixel
8Mpixel
 12.3Mpixel


fstop
f2.4
 f2.2
?
 f2.0


zoom
4x digital
 3x digital
4x digital
 1x


focus
auto tap
auto tap
auto tap
 5 modes


Flash
LED
 LED
LED
 LED


Stabilization
Yes
No
Yes
 No


Screen type
Retina
AMOLED
AMOLED
 TFT LCD


Screen size
960&#215;640
800&#215;480
1280&#215;800
 750&#215;620


Pixels/Inch
326ppi
217ppi
285ppi
 242ppi


Glass
Sharp
Gorilla
Gorilla
 ?


Touchscreen
Yes
Yes
Yes
No


Photo Editor
3rd party
 Own
Own
 Simple


Video size
1080p
 720p
1080p
 720p


Video speed
30fps
 30fps
30fps
 24fps


GPS
geotags
 geotags
geotags
 No


Other
face det.
Non destr.
photo edits
face, smile
detection
Wacom Stylus
 Many,
$1200



And the ratings for the smartphone cameras puts iPhone4s at the top of the smartphone heap for overall sharpness, color punch and exposure. However, the FinePix X100 gets top notch marks for image quality but mixed remarks on its overall operation at DPreview.  Just a year or two ago one would not even bother to consider a smartphone camera in the same ballpark as a [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Who Knew Graphics Software</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/who-knew-graphics-software/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/who-knew-graphics-software/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:14:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[3D]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=876</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Google is selling SketchUp Pro for $495 &#8211; Why?
The program, SketchUp Pro is not strange &#8211; its a architecture and landscape design program which appears to have not only a nice range of features but also integrates well with AutoDesk DWG and other CAD files. No the novelty here is that Google is doing this. True, Google is in the software business and they have a new Web Store, and they sell Google Apps and other cloud software. But this is a passingly strange software sideline. Is this just honoring a purchase agreement made a few years ago. Is this help for a Stanford buddy? Any novel suggestions will be duly noted in the comments below.
Strange Software II

Autodesk is selling this for $59
Okay you can get Autodesk SketchBook Pro 2011 for $55 on Amazon. Why is Autodesk going for markets served by Adobe, Corel and many others. Okay, there is the need in more Autodeask products for great drawn images &#8211; especialy as 2D surfaces. And maybe this is a yearly subscription price &#8211; but there is no sign of that on Amazon or the Autodesk site.
Are these precursor signs of Autodesk and Google entering the graphics software markets in a bigger [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Corel PaintShop Pro X4: Its Back!</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/corel-paintshop-pro-x4-its-back/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/corel-paintshop-pro-x4-its-back/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:18:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=860</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Back on April Fools Day 2009, the headline was RIP: Corel PaintShop Pro. I had just tried the latest version,  PaintShop Pro X2, and found it to be awful &#8211; slow, bloated and failing like its fellow software boondoggle of the day, Microsoft Vista. Having already seen the downward trend with PaintShop Pro X1 &#8211; the verdict was to let the PaintShop Pro franchise Rest in Pieces.
But less than a year later Corel came up with  Paint Shop Pro X3 which utterly surprised this reviewer with a much stabler program, improved response time, and a very useful Learning Center sidebar that made working with the program notably easier. But I had moved onto Adobe LightRoom and some online tools like Picnik. So Corel&#8217;s next release,  PaintShop Pro X4, April 2011 just got pushed down the LIFO stack of things to cover at the PhotoFinishes until  this review at TechRadar &#8211; Corel Paintshop Pro is fast. So the lifo stack got pushed and here is how PaintShop Pro X4  appeared on screen:
Corel PaintShop Pro X4 

PaintShop Pro X4 new look and layout
Actually this was the second screen seen as the Manage &#8211; Adjust &#8211; Edit tabs across the top of the [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Creating Great Web Images</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/creating-great-web-images/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/creating-great-web-images/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:11:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=830</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Given the wave of great automatic digital cameras, it would appear easy to produce great Web images. But actually getting from here &#8211; good images in the digital camera; to there, great images on your Web pages can present some non-trivial and vexing problems. Here are 3 general problems:
1)On the web, image size still matters. For close to 15 years, JPEG compression has remained the standard for minimum size of image for best viewing. There have been only marginal improvements on the boundaries &#8211; better black+white image compression plus wider color gamut for several image standards. But JPEG2000, which does improve compression by 15-35% depending on the image, got kneecapped by Microsoft with a competing  WMP compression entry.  But neither has gained traction in the market. So an image of 4MPixels is tops for splash images and 1-2Mpixels for standard images is the upper limits for websites. Otherwise performance drags or an image just takes up too much precious web  space.
2)Video technology has taken a competitive leadership position with rapid improvements in compression technology, better audio accompaniment, and strong acceptance among free delivery sources such as YouTube, Vimeo and others.  It is almost as easy to add video to your website [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Making Notecards With Your Own Images</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/making-notecards-with-your-own-images/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/making-notecards-with-your-own-images/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:44:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=816</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sharing pictures online is becoming ever more popular. Photography websites like Flickr and Fotki or social media sites like Facebook, Google+ and Tumblr  are locales where photographers congregate. It has become so important in social media sites that Google+ has  boosted  its photo album service into the top ranks - see here And smartphone camaeras are certainly expanding even more the popularity of quick and convenient phototaking as Instagram shows  and the fact that Flickr&#8217;s most frequently used camera has switched from Nikon D70 to iPhone 4. Picture taking has become a popular form of expression like singing or writing well.

detail: Pearl Surveyer, Water Reflections &#8211; rug hooking
This post is about another way to express yourself photographically by  creating your own notecards with your favorite images on them. Think of photography like poetry &#8211; capturing intimate moments of your  times. What better way to express yourself but to add your favorite poetry in  images to your letters and notecards. The following slideshow proposes a plan for doing  just that &#8211; CLICK  ANYWHERE ON THE GRAY SLIDE STACK BELOW TO SEE THE PRESENTATION:
The above presentation is part of a series of free lectures I am giving in the Northumberland Ontario Canada libraries &#8211; see here for [...]]]></description>
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		<title>The Missing Link in Apples iBook Author</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/the-missing-link-in-apples-ibook-author/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/the-missing-link-in-apples-ibook-author/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:19:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=813</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Adobe Flash.
iBook Author got a lot of fan fair last week with many trial software runs.Ye Editor happened to witness one &#8211; 5 things stood out about iBook Author:
1)It is simple and fairly easy to use given this simplicity;
2)It  can turn out large iBooks but they are  huge  files about 1.3 GB for a 1oo page 10 large &#8220;animated&#8221; illustrations;
3)it can be slowwww at times in design and creation;
4)it does not have  advanced and compelling animation features familiar to Erain Swift3D [Mac, Win] , Toon Boom Animate [Mac, Win], SwishMax [Win], Anime  Studio [Mac, Win], as well as Flash CS5.5 [Mac, Win] developers;
5)As usual of late from Apple, it is highly proprietary and turns out proprietary iBook files.
Again, for animation Apple Quicktime is found wanting and iBook is no exception. HTML5 is not a viable  solution and in fact Apple simply does not have a replacement for Flash for its millions of designers. Yet Apple&#8217;s case against Flash is highly suspect.  iBook Author just underlines the case of deficient products being provided to loyal Mac graphic designers and developers when many products much better are available.
]]></description>
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		<title>Where to Compare Digital  Cameras</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/where-to-compare-digital-cameras/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/where-to-compare-digital-cameras/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:21:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=809</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are a lot of good camera review websites &#8211; Dpreview.com, DigitaCameraInfo.com, DigitalCameraReview.com, aand PCWorld are among the favorite sites which are frequently visited by ye Editor. But that is the problem, one has to scurry like a rabbit all over the place to get a complete look see on whats coming up and then the comparison among favorites can be &#8230; well not so much fun. So when CNET Review offered the following:

CNET Compartive Camera Listing
And don&#8217;t worry, CNET has all the specs laid out in order:

Net result, is that CNET Review is now a favorite place to go to do camera comparisons. What is especially nice is the ability to add and subtract cameras. Whats  is missing is a dropdown list of cameras that can be added to the comparison. But overall, CNET review is a real time saver and insight provider on the fast changing digital camera scene.
]]></description>
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		<title>.8bf Fun: the Mehdi Plugins</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/8bf-fun-the-mehdi-plugins/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/8bf-fun-the-mehdi-plugins/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:15:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=800</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The .8bf open Adobe Photoshop plugin standard is endangered. So to honor the creativity and fun of so many .8bf based filter and plugins, thePhotofinishes has started a series looking at some of the fun, creative and often free .8bf plugins. And there is no better place to start than the Mehdi Plugins which are not only all free but also so much fun to work with. It is important to note that many of the Mehdi plugins are  FilterMeister productions - enough said. Now lets take a look at some of the free Mehdi plugins.
Color Control

HSL Plus
Do you think your photo editor&#8217;s HSL or saturation correction command is too timid or too tawdry? Take a look at the free Mehdi HSL Plus filter . The reason its stronger but less tawdry in it color enhancement is , according to Mehdi, because contrast  is control through luminosity and gamut clipping adjustments. Ye Editor can testify that this filter produces FujiFilm Realia color punch without going over the line. It is especially attractive in touch-of-color situations where rich colors are needed in the surrounding B+W ground. Try it if you are an old color slide buff.

Gradient Smithy
Gradient Smithy is fun to operate [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Adobe  Plugins Change</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/adobe-plugins-change/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/adobe-plugins-change/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:45:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=792</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the best features of Photoshop in its early days has been two programmable capabilities: Actions for Photoshop users and plugins for software developers. Plugins over the years have anticipated many image processing  features that eventually became incorporated with the Adobe design flair into Photoshop or Photoshop Elements commands. Look at some of the current smart commands for blurs, masking, sharpening and image adjustments and there are one or two plugins which influenced these capabilities.
For example, onOne Software&#8217;s Perfect Mask 5 [born as Mask Pro] has sported masking features over the years  that have inspired Photoshop refinements:

So both parties have benefitted from the complimentary relationship. And lets not underestimate the importance of plugins &#8211; open iPhone apps originally rejected by Steve Jobs were included and the rest is business history. Here is what Mac Tech&#8217;s Kas Thomas has tellingly said about the concept of plugins and the benefit to Adobe Photoshop:
Over the years, Adobe Photoshop has become such a staple of desktop graphics that people tend to lose sight of what may well be this program&#8217;s most significant contribution to the world of desktop computing: namely, the popularization of plug-ins. External code resources were nothing new in Photoshop&#8217;s early [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Google+ Raises the Albums Ante vs Facebook</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/google-plus-photo-services/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/google-plus-photo-services/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:27:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=779</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the hidden  attractions of Facebook for many users has been  its photo album services. Consider the line up &#8211; easy to use albums which can be captioned, sorted and organized to your hearts content. It is easy to import/upload to your albums including appending onto an existing album, exchanging photos between albums or creating a new one. And with added features  such as  easy transfer of images between albums, comments for individual photos and even face recognition and tagging; many Facebook users are often refugees from Flickr, Fotki and other public photo album services . And why not? Many of the services have a range of control like s a limit to the number of set/albums or the number of images stored or some restrictions on album  features and organization . In sum, Facebook&#8217;s photo albums and services has been an invisible pillar of loyalty and strength for Facebook.
So when Ye Editor considered moving over to Google+ for circles, hangouts and less privacy worries [really, Facebook is worse than Google] &#8211; the concern was that Google+ could not match the Facebook Photo Goodies. Well this note is all about why one can sayGoogle+  not just matches but in several [...]]]></description>
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		<title>CES 2012 Week Day 1 &#8211; Most Interesting Photo Stuff</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/ces-2012-week-day-1-most-interesting-photo-stuff/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/ces-2012-week-day-1-most-interesting-photo-stuff/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:37:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[3D]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=774</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a recounting of the most interesting [not necessarily the best] daily reveals at the CES Show.
1)The Canon PowerShot G1 X is important for what it is not. It is not the first Canon ILC camera in the spirit of the Sony Nex7 or Olympus Pen ILC. It is not shirt pocket size point and shoot; more coat pocket size. It is not a full size CMOS sensor chip at 18.7 x 14mm versus the new Nikon D4&#8242;s 36 x 24mm. It is not $550 or $600 but $800.
2) Victorinox SSD : 1TB of high-speed storage crammed in a Swiss Army Knife. Really! But the impressive speed of the device and huge capcity makes it a great combo with any digital camera, smartphone or  tablet.
3)FujiFilm X-Pro1 Mirrorless, rangefinder, ILC-Interchangeable Lens Camera. The optical range finder adapts to the the lens attached! Key specs on the  lensing available, nature of the sensor[must be BIS-Back Illuminated Sensor because that improves sharpness and reduces noise significantly] and price still to be revealed.
Finally there is a ton of new 3D, 50&#8243;++ TVs with Google Android on board to show of your camera&#8217;s still and videos  with direct WiFi or HDMI ease. Now to find [...]]]></description>
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		<title>New Nikon D4 vs New Samsung WB850F</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/new-nikon-d4-vs-new-samsung-wb850f/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/new-nikon-d4-vs-new-samsung-wb850f/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:43:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=765</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hunnnh? Whazzup ye Editor? You are trying to compare a full high end Nikon D4 DSLR with a Samsung point and shoot compact camera. Didn&#8217;t you see the intro video for the Nikon D4:

Yep, but this is a value and improvement comparison.
Take a look at the preliminary value table below:



Feature
Nikon D4 DSLR
Samsung WB850F


Picture size
 16.2 MPixel
 16MPixel


Sensor chip
 CMOS
 BSI CMOS


Sensor size
 full frame 36x24mm
 Not Available Yet


ISO Range no boost
 100-12800
 100-3200


Image stabilization
 No, $ extra/lens
 Yes


Display
 3.2&#8243; LCD
 3&#8243; AMOLED


Video
 1080P, 30fps
 1080P, 30fps


Weight
 1340gms
 308gms


GPS
 $ extra
 Yes


Lens
 $ extra
 21x optical zoom


Price
 $6000
 $345



Whats becoming evident in digital cameras is that after the quality of the sensor and lensing, the onboard CPU chip is becoming paramount. There is so much spare computing power available, image engineers can devote more time to digital noise reduction, image sharpening, panorama shot stitching and HDR exposure improvements among other things. So small cameras are doing a Steve Jobs-like iDevice run on DSLR cameras. better exposure bang for your  $camera bucks.
Among the many Nikon D4 previews, DPReview says it best about still-picture taking improvements in the D4:
The biggest change is, of course, the improvement in video capabilities. Given the increasing demand for video footage from professional photographers, and the incredible success of Canon’s 5D Mark II in the professional video market, it was [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Tsunami of Great Compact Cameras Incoming</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/tsunami-of-great-compact-cameras-incoming/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/tsunami-of-great-compact-cameras-incoming/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:27:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=760</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Picthat has been saying for over two years now that compact cameras are being pushed hard by the improvements in the cameras on smartphones and tablets. Now courtesy of a Wells Fargo pre-release on Consumer Electronic Show announcement, readers will see that there is a wave of new point and shoot, compact cameras incoming stocked with great features like huge BIS CMOS chips [bigger size, less noise, sharper raw images], WiFi, GPS, and other goodies. Read it and weep if you got a new compact camera for Christmas:
Samsung will unveil six Wi-Fi enabled cameras with the WB850F ($349) the top model. It has a 16-mega-pixel BSI CMOS sensor, 21x optical zoom, 3-inch AMO-LED display, 1080/30p FullHD video with Dual Capture and GPS. Its popular Dual View line will also have Wi-Fi, including the DV500F Dual View ($299) with a 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, 6x zoom, 3.5-inch AMOLED Touch Display plus a 1.5-inch front LCD, 1080/30p FullHD video with Dual Capture.
Canon U.S.A. is unveiling two PowerShot Elph-series point-and-shoot cameras and a new flagship Power-Shot G-series model. The G1X (shipping in February at a $799 suggested retail) will be positioned for advanced amateurs and professionals looking for a walk-around point-and-shoot model and [...]]]></description>
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