Exposure 7 Plug-in Trial

With a slow Sunday I thought I would take a look at the Alien Skin
Exposure 7 plug-in 15 day trial.
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/

So far the results are interesting, and perhaps a tad more subtle than
On1 Perfect Effects 9.
Here is one take, Original vs. Exposure 7 via LR5.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_89.jpg

--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 2015-04-12 19:54:17 +0000, Tony Cooper said:

On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:04:26 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

With a slow Sunday I thought I would take a look at the Alien Skin
Exposure 7 plug-in 15 day trial.
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/

So far the results are interesting, and perhaps a tad more subtle than
On1 Perfect Effects 9.
Here is one take, Original vs. Exposure 7 via LR5.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_89.jpg

There's a dramatic difference, but for true evaluation there should be
a third image: how you could process that same first image in LR5 or
Photoshop without purchasing a $149 program.

It is a 15 day trial so I am checking just what can be done and where
it is going to prove most useful.

I don't believe I could just produce the same result in LR5, and I
seriously doubt that it would be possible without the assistance of
some external editor, or plug-in.
As for Photoshop solo, it is probably possible to replicate, or come
close to the result I achieved there with various layers and PS tools,
at the cost of an investment in time and experimentation.

Anyway here is a quick PS CC attempt without any plug-ins just what is
available in PS. I didn't quite pull off the lighting via color grad
fill layer, or the light vignette. ...but there it is showing the
layers as I built them. Straight from RAW via ACR.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_90.jpg

If there's not a significant difference, you don't need the program.

The difference is there, and it was quicker and easier using the
Exposure 7 plug-in. As for making the purchase, the trial has 15 days
to go.

There are a lot of programs out there that produce very good results.
The examples look great. But, if the results are not significantly
better than what you can already do with what you have, or there is a
significant time-savings, I don't see the point.

The point was, I was bored and I thought I would noodle about with a
trial version of something I had heard good things about, and so far I
am reasonably impressed. Whether I actually need it or not is another
question, and for my type of photography doubtful.

I have the On1 9 Suite which should be capable of producing similar
results, and the NIK Collection.
If I am not mistaken you also have both of those.


--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 2015-04-12 22:15:39 +0000, Tony Cooper said:

On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 14:16:06 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:
On 2015-04-12 19:54:17 +0000, Tony Cooper said:
On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:04:26 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

With a slow Sunday I thought I would take a look at the Alien Skin
Exposure 7 plug-in 15 day trial.
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/

So far the results are interesting, and perhaps a tad more subtle than
On1 Perfect Effects 9.
Here is one take, Original vs. Exposure 7 via LR5.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_89.jpg

There's a dramatic difference, but for true evaluation there should be
a third image: how you could process that same first image in LR5 or
Photoshop without purchasing a $149 program.

It is a 15 day trial so I am checking just what can be done and where
it is going to prove most useful.

I don't believe I could just produce the same result in LR5, and I
seriously doubt that it would be possible without the assistance of
some external editor, or plug-in.
As for Photoshop solo, it is probably possible to replicate, or come
close to the result I achieved there with various layers and PS tools,
at the cost of an investment in time and experimentation.

Anyway here is a quick PS CC attempt without any plug-ins just what is
available in PS. I didn't quite pull off the lighting via color grad
fill layer, or the light vignette. ...but there it is showing the
layers as I built them. Straight from RAW via ACR.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_90.jpg

If there's not a significant difference, you don't need the program.

The difference is there, and it was quicker and easier using the
Exposure 7 plug-in. As for making the purchase, the trial has 15 days
to go.

Yes, the difference is there. Whether or not it's a good difference
is personal. The X7 version is darker, moodier. Your version is very
fresh and pinkish looking.

With the initial PS appoach I just couldn't find the combination which
would replicate the X7 rendering. I suppose with a lot more
experimentation and trial & error I might get closer. I guess with any
of the plug-ins you are buying all the ground work and knowledge of
folks with better technical experience than us duffers.

There are a lot of programs out there that produce very good results.
The examples look great. But, if the results are not significantly
better than what you can already do with what you have, or there is a
significant time-savings, I don't see the point.

The point was, I was bored and I thought I would noodle about with a
trial version of something I had heard good things about, and so far I
am reasonably impressed. Whether I actually need it or not is another
question, and for my type of photography doubtful.

I understand. I do the same thing, but by following tutorials. I
seldom end up using the tutorial version, but I learn from the steps
and learn about the effect of different tools and techniques.

Yup! I go the tutorial route as well, and occasionally I have an Ah!
Ha! moment.

I have the On1 9 Suite which should be capable of producing similar
results, and the NIK Collection.
If I am not mistaken you also have both of those.

I have OnOne, but won't be upgrading to what is now One1 and the new
version. I use PerfectResize, fairly often and that's about it.

Experiment. Even the earlier editions of Perfect Effects has some
interesting treatments. I got the upgrade to On1 9 via a great discount
offer from them.

I use NIK's Silver Efex quite a bit, but primarily I run through the
presets to see the effect each will have on the image. Normally, I
use one modified preset, but I like to see what the image would be
like if I did something totally different.

I didn't particularly find Dfine helpful until I realized that using
the brush and just painting a few areas works so much better than a
global application.

I used Dfine quite regularly, but now I do my basic NR during RAW
processing, either in LR5 or ACR. Then I use Dfine selectively with the
brush to handle shadow noise, strong noise, or hot spots.

I have problems with noise in my baseball shots of the grandson's
games. The games start at 6:30 PM, and it's dark when they finish. In
my opinion, my Nikon D300 does not do high ISO well. Anything over
800 is practically unusable. Lighting on the ball field where these
games are played is bad. The infield shots are OK, but the home plate
shots in the late innings are bad. With one grandson as the catcher,
and some of the best action shots being at home plate, this is
frustrating.

Using LR or ACR for your RAW processing can fix stuff in the shadows
pretty well.

I should add that I'm using a F/4/5.6 55-300 lens and not a good lens
for low light/fast shutter speed stuff.

This was shot on my D300 with the Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR; ISO
500, 1/500 sec @ f/6.3.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_91.jpg

I don't use the rest of the NIK set.

You should play around a bit. Color Efex Pro has some good tools for
fine tuning contrast and brightness in shadows. Then with Viveza you
can adjust various criteria and apply the adjustments selectively with
the brush.


--
Regards,

Savageduck

On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 18:15:39 -0400, Tony Cooper
wrote:

In
my opinion, my Nikon D300 does not do high ISO well. Anything over
800 is practically unusable.

Hmm. I used to regularly run mine at 1200 with no problems which
concerned me. On occasion I would go higher and I some times then
experienced noticable noise.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 2015-04-13 03:25:10 +0000, Eric Stevens said:

On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 18:15:39 -0400, Tony Cooper
wrote:

In
my opinion, my Nikon D300 does not do high ISO well. Anything over
800 is practically unusable.

Hmm. I used to regularly run mine at 1200 with no problems which
concerned me. On occasion I would go higher and I some times then
experienced noticable noise.

I can run my D300S up to ISO 1600 without crossing the excessive noise
threshold.

BTW: This is one of the reasons, if there are particularly deep shadows
and/or strong contrasting light, I will dial the ISO down to 200-400
and resort to multiple exposure HDR. This is useless for action and
sports shots.

....and I have managed to control my HDR process so that I avoid the
haloes and saturated glow that was typical in HDR of just a few years
ago.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_92.jpg

--
Regards,

Savageduck

In article , Andreas Skitsnack wrote:

Savageduck:
With a slow Sunday I thought I would take a look at the Alien Skin
Exposure 7 plug-in 15 day trial.
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure

So far the results are interesting, and perhaps a tad more subtle
than On1 Perfect Effects 9. Here is one take, Original vs.
Exposure 7 via LR5.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_89.jpg

There's a dramatic difference, but for true evaluation there should
be a third image: how you could process that same first image in
LR5 or Photoshop without purchasing a $149 program.

If there's not a significant difference, you don't need the program.

Anything can be done in Photoshop. Alien Skin Exposure just makes it easier for
you, and you can get this result:

http://jonaseklundh.se/files/exposure_7.jpg

With just a few clicks. If emulating analog photos is something you want to do,
Exposure is the right tool, even if it can be done with another tool.

--
Sandman

In article , Savageduck wrote:

With a slow Sunday I thought I would take a look at the Alien Skin
Exposure 7 plug-in 15 day trial.
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure

So far the results are interesting, and perhaps a tad more subtle
than On1 Perfect Effects 9. Here is one take, Original vs. Exposure
7 via LR5.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_89.jpg

Yes, they've added Bokeh controls and a few more presets. It's a nice update.

--
Sandman

On 4/12/2015 3:04 PM, Savageduck wrote:
With a slow Sunday I thought I would take a look at the Alien Skin
Exposure 7 plug-in 15 day trial.
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/

So far the results are interesting, and perhaps a tad more subtle than
On1 Perfect Effects 9.
Here is one take, Original vs. Exposure 7 via LR5.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_89.jpg


DXO can be even more subtle, but it is a bear to put in a PS based
workflow, but getting better.


--
PeterN

On 4/12/2015 6:15 PM, Tony Cooper wrote:
On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 14:16:06 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2015-04-12 19:54:17 +0000, Tony Cooper said:

On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:04:26 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

With a slow Sunday I thought I would take a look at the Alien Skin
Exposure 7 plug-in 15 day trial.
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/

So far the results are interesting, and perhaps a tad more subtle than
On1 Perfect Effects 9.
Here is one take, Original vs. Exposure 7 via LR5.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_89.jpg

There's a dramatic difference, but for true evaluation there should be
a third image: how you could process that same first image in LR5 or
Photoshop without purchasing a $149 program.

It is a 15 day trial so I am checking just what can be done and where
it is going to prove most useful.

I don't believe I could just produce the same result in LR5, and I
seriously doubt that it would be possible without the assistance of
some external editor, or plug-in.
As for Photoshop solo, it is probably possible to replicate, or come
close to the result I achieved there with various layers and PS tools,
at the cost of an investment in time and experimentation.

Anyway here is a quick PS CC attempt without any plug-ins just what is
available in PS. I didn't quite pull off the lighting via color grad
fill layer, or the light vignette. ...but there it is showing the
layers as I built them. Straight from RAW via ACR.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_90.jpg

If there's not a significant difference, you don't need the program.

The difference is there, and it was quicker and easier using the
Exposure 7 plug-in. As for making the purchase, the trial has 15 days
to go.

Yes, the difference is there. Whether or not it's a good difference
is personal. The X7 version is darker, moodier. Your version is very
fresh and pinkish looking.

There are a lot of programs out there that produce very good results.
The examples look great. But, if the results are not significantly
better than what you can already do with what you have, or there is a
significant time-savings, I don't see the point.

The point was, I was bored and I thought I would noodle about with a
trial version of something I had heard good things about, and so far I
am reasonably impressed. Whether I actually need it or not is another
question, and for my type of photography doubtful.

I understand. I do the same thing, but by following tutorials. I
seldom end up using the tutorial version, but I learn from the steps
and learn about the effect of different tools and techniques.


I have the On1 9 Suite which should be capable of producing similar
results, and the NIK Collection.
If I am not mistaken you also have both of those.

I have OnOne, but won't be upgrading to what is now One1 and the new
version. I use PerfectResize, fairly often and that's about it.

I use NIK's Silver Efex quite a bit, but primarily I run through the
presets to see the effect each will have on the image. Normally, I
use one modified preset, but I like to see what the image would be
like if I did something totally different.

I didn't particularly find Dfine helpful until I realized that using
the brush and just painting a few areas works so much better than a
global application.

I have problems with noise in my baseball shots of the grandson's
games. The games start at 6:30 PM, and it's dark when they finish. In
my opinion, my Nikon D300 does not do high ISO well. Anything over
800 is practically unusable. Lighting on the ball field where these
games are played is bad. The infield shots are OK, but the home plate
shots in the late innings are bad. With one grandson as the catcher,
and some of the best action shots being at home plate, this is
frustrating.


Try DXO it does a great jpb of noise removal.


--
PeterN

On 2015-04-18 15:53:00 +0000, PeterN said:

On 4/12/2015 6:15 PM, Tony Cooper wrote:
On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 14:16:06 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:
On 2015-04-12 19:54:17 +0000, Tony Cooper said:
On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 12:04:26 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

With a slow Sunday I thought I would take a look at the Alien Skin
Exposure 7 plug-in 15 day trial.
http://www.alienskin.com/exposure/

So far the results are interesting, and perhaps a tad more subtle than
On1 Perfect Effects 9.
Here is one take, Original vs. Exposure 7 via LR5.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_89.jpg

There's a dramatic difference, but for true evaluation there should be
a third image: how you could process that same first image in LR5 or
Photoshop without purchasing a $149 program.

It is a 15 day trial so I am checking just what can be done and where
it is going to prove most useful.

I don't believe I could just produce the same result in LR5, and I
seriously doubt that it would be possible without the assistance of
some external editor, or plug-in.
As for Photoshop solo, it is probably possible to replicate, or come
close to the result I achieved there with various layers and PS tools,
at the cost of an investment in time and experimentation.

Anyway here is a quick PS CC attempt without any plug-ins just what is
available in PS. I didn't quite pull off the lighting via color grad
fill layer, or the light vignette. ...but there it is showing the
layers as I built them. Straight from RAW via ACR.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1295663/FileChute/screenshot_90.jpg

If there's not a significant difference, you don't need the program.

The difference is there, and it was quicker and easier using the
Exposure 7 plug-in. As for making the purchase, the trial has 15 days
to go.

Yes, the difference is there. Whether or not it's a good difference
is personal. The X7 version is darker, moodier. Your version is very
fresh and pinkish looking.

There are a lot of programs out there that produce very good results.
The examples look great. But, if the results are not significantly
better than what you can already do with what you have, or there is a
significant time-savings, I don't see the point.

The point was, I was bored and I thought I would noodle about with a
trial version of something I had heard good things about, and so far I
am reasonably impressed. Whether I actually need it or not is another
question, and for my type of photography doubtful.

I understand. I do the same thing, but by following tutorials. I
seldom end up using the tutorial version, but I learn from the steps
and learn about the effect of different tools and techniques.

I have the On1 9 Suite which should be capable of producing similar
results, and the NIK Collection.
If I am not mistaken you also have both of those.

I have OnOne, but won't be upgrading to what is now One1 and the new
version. I use PerfectResize, fairly often and that's about it.

I use NIK's Silver Efex quite a bit, but primarily I run through the
presets to see the effect each will have on the image. Normally, I
use one modified preset, but I like to see what the image would be
like if I did something totally different.

I didn't particularly find Dfine helpful until I realized that using
the brush and just painting a few areas works so much better than a
global application.

I have problems with noise in my baseball shots of the grandson's
games. The games start at 6:30 PM, and it's dark when they finish. In
my opinion, my Nikon D300 does not do high ISO well. Anything over
800 is practically unusable. Lighting on the ball field where these
games are played is bad. The infield shots are OK, but the home plate
shots in the late innings are bad. With one grandson as the catcher,
and some of the best action shots being at home plate, this is
frustrating.

Try DXO it does a great jpb of noise removal.

Depending on your workflow the NR in Lightroom 5 and the current
edition of ACR are particularly good. As with all things, you just have
to use them correctly and with a degree of restraint.

Then I have always found NIK Define to be very goog for general NR and
for localized selective NR, particularly when it comes to shadows,
large color field such as sky, and hot pixels.

Then, the latest edition of OnOne (On1) has a pretty good NR filter.

Those are the NR tools I have available when needed.

Just don't make the mistake of using all of thm at once. ;-)

--
Regards,

Savageduck