Tag Archives: digital imaging

New- Photo Mechanic Plus Offers Full Catalog Functionality!

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In what is undoubtedly the best news in all of 2020, Photo Mechanic software now has full image database functionality, which means you can use the program as your main photo catalog and image library.

I can’t even begin to describe just how awesome this is, or how excited I am at this news, but in the few brief moments I read the announcement and downloaded the update, my photography life changed instantly. The sun just got a whole lot brighter, and for a short while, I even forgot about the pandemic.

First released in 1998, Photo Mechanic has long been the world’s fastest image browser, and it’s perhaps the best all around photo management program around. Its performance is unparalleled by any other software. With Photo Mechanic, you can browse and scroll through huge folders of images, even RAW files, at blazing speed. We’re talking thousand of photos. Tens of thousands, as fast as you can scroll with the mouse or your trackpad.

And not just that. Photo Mechanic is powerful solution for adding captions, keywords, tagging, staring, rating, copying, saving, moving, assigning GPS coordinates, adjusting capture times, adding watermarks and even uploading to social media.

It handles RAW+JPEG seamlessly and efficiently, and unlike Lightroom, if you’re opening a RAW file in an external editor, like Luminar, Photo Mechanic sends the original file. (Lightroom sends a copy of the file AFTER it’s already demosaiced the file through its own conversion process, which often leads to sharpness issues with Fuji X-TRANS RAW files.)

If there’s one program that I have used more than any other program in my photography life during the past 14+ years, it’s Photo Mechanic. It’s been an absolutely indispensable tool, and the only thing that was missing was a full catalog function, hence the need for Lightroom, but that day has now arrived. (Read my post 4 Reasons Why I’m in Love with Photo Mechanic.)

Photo Mechanic Plus

Camera Bits, the company that makes Photo Mechanic, has been working on this for years, and this month, they released Photo Mechanic Plus, which combines all of the capabilities of the original program with a powerful image database.

Offering the same browsing experience and all of the same tools and features that make Photo Mechanic such a viable component in your photography workflow, Photo Mechanic Plus gives you even more tools to help you manage your digital photography life.

• Comprehensive Search Box

The search tool inside Photo Mechanic Plus allows you to search across multiple drives, even external hard drives and network drives, using simple keyword search to complex searches that cover everything from capture times, exact captions, image dimensions, locations and collections.

• Saved Searches

You can craft advanced search parameters that give you highly detailed results, and then you can save them so that you can find exactly what you want, at any time in the future.

• Filters

A powerful filter tool allows you to browse photos by any parameter you select: date, camera, lens, star and color rating, capture time, and any other metadata you select.

• Collections

Photo Mechanic Plus allows you to combine images from multiple folders or drives into cohesive collections that help you stay organized, or present specific batches of images to your clients.

• Multiple Catalogs

Photo Mechanic Plus allows you keep multiple catalogs, and you can browse or search images from one or more catalogs at the same time. This allows you to keep your photos organized in whatever way you wish, without having to close out and open a new catalog just to preview images from more than one catalog.

A Comprehensive Workflow Tool

In my photography life, Photo Mechanic has always sat at the center of my workflow. It’s what I use to import, caption, keyword, tags, rate, copy, move, save, export and upload my photos every single day. I simply couldn’t imagine life without it.

Even though programs like Lightroom do all of this stuff, Photo Mechanic does it all so much faster and more efficiently. The only problem I had was that it wasn’t a full catalog.

Sure, it will browse any folder you want, and if you set up your image library in an easily identifiable structure, you could theoretically use Photo Mechanic as a catalog, but it was limited. It doesn’t have a very powerful search tool, and you can’t filter your results as easily, or as compressively.

With Photo Mechanic Plus, you now have all of that. Speed, powerful management tools and a fully functional database. Boom. Problems solved.

Performance – In Use

A lot of software has catalog functions, but none of them are as fast or as compressive as Photo Mechanic Plus. Lightroom? Please. A great program, but we all know that it’s got some serious issues. For one thing, it’s very slow to render huge batches of RAW files. In addition, Adobe’s RAW Converter doesn’t handle the Fuji X-TRANS RAW files very well. Oh yea… and you have to buy a subscription or else get the less powerful version that won’t ever be upgraded.

Capture One is an awesome program, but it comes with a steep learning curve. And even though it’s got a catalog option, I’ve always found it to be rather clunky, especially if you have a huge image library. I’ve tried to switch to Capture One numerous times over the years, and I’ve never been able to migrate my entire catalog without numerous freezes, crashes and painfully slow browsing.

I’m a huge fan of Luminar, and was excited to see them include a catalog function with Luminar 4. However, as smart as the Skylum engineers are, they’re starting from scratch. They’ll never catch up with Photo Mechanic, which has had a 22-year head start.

I just spent the last weekend uploading nearly 180,000 images across many folders and subfolders into my brand new Photo Mechanic Plus catalog, and I didn’t have a single crash. Not one problem, not one hiccup, not one freeze, not one issue of any kind.

The entire process went seamlessly. The program tore through through folders, images and metadata with ridiculous efficiency, sometime importing batches at over 30,000 images per hour. Now that they’re in, I can browse, search and manage every single image in my library right inside the Photo Mechanic window. Going forward, I can import new images right from my card to the catalog.

Now, the only time I need to leave Photo Mechanic is when I want edit a photo. With single click of the mouse keyboard, I can send an image right to whatever editing program I choose, and then  save it back to whatever folder I wish, sync that folder and done.

Like I said, my life just got a whole lot easier, and yours can too. If you’ve used Photo Mechanic in the past, then you, know what an amazing program it is. Photo Mechanic Plus makes it even better.

Special Introductory rice

Camera Bits has three pricing options for Photo Mechanic plus, depending on if you’re a new user, a current user of Photo Mechanic v.5 or if you’re using the latest v.6. It works with both Mac and Windows, and there’s even a free demo you can try out. Right now, you can take advantage of the special introductory price.

Whether you’re looking for a good photo management system a fully functional catalog solution, I highly recommend Photo Mechanic or the new Photo Mechanic Plus. Both are awesome programs that will make your workflow go so much faster.

A Look at FUJIFILM’s CLASSIC Neg. Film Simulation

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One year ago this week, I posted my first video tutorial here YouTube. It was a detailed explanation of the Fuji film simulations and how you can use them to maximize your own creativity with your Fuji camera. That video has become my most watched tutorial, so if you haven’t seen it, you can find it here at this link. 

A few months after I made that video, Fuji added another film sim to the mix called CLASSIC Neg. It was introduced with the release of the X-Pro 3, and it’s now found inside the X-T4 and X100V as well. 

CLASSIC Neg quickly became one of my favorite film sims, and I’ve used it extensively on a wide variety of subject matter during the course of this year, so in this post, I’m going to give you a close look at CLASSIC Neg. and show you what you can do with it. 

Like most of their other film sims, CLASSIC Neg. was directly patterned after one of Fuji’s legacy films.

Built to replicate the look of the FUJICOLOR SUPERIA color print film introduced in the late 1990s, it’s designed to give you the look of consumer color negative film that was so prevalent in the decades before digital photography took over. That said, you can actually still buy SUPERA print film.

In a sense, CLASSIC Neg. is designed to look like snapshots of old, you know, back when we shot print film and got our pictures back from the lab in that little envelope. Or, depending on your age, maybe you don’t know. For millions of amateur shooters, that’s what photography was all about through much of our lives.

 

With CLASSIC Neg., Fujifilm digs into its 85+ year history with film and color, and gives us a unique, but familiar look. This new film sim taps into our color memories with a bold and unique expression that plays nicely with the already rich set of color choices we have on the X Series.

The color palette of CLASSIC Neg is interesting. It has a similar, strong tonality to CLASSIC CHROME, but with slightly richer “Fuji-style” colors that you see in PROVIA the PRO Neg. film sims. It also has whiter whites than most of the other film sims, even Velvia. To my eyes, the best way to describe it would be Pro Neg Hi with brighter highlights, slightly darker shadows and a little bit less saturation.

The overall effect is a slightly muted, but high contrast profile that, again, is reminiscent of glossy lab prints that so many of us grew up on. 

It might not seem so great at first. After all, it’s not as vivid as velvia and it’s got got that high contrast without those bold colors, but this gives CLASSIC NEG it a very representational look, and if you’ve watched a few of my video lesson on YouTube, then you’ve probably heard me talk about the notion of how the ideas of representation and abbreviation play in photography. 

In my mind, making powerful images isn’t about perfectly reproducing your subjects, it’s about creating a visual representation of your scene and abbreviating the strongest visual elements and ideas present. Instead of spoon feeding everything to your viewers, you make them work for it and try to imagine what you didn’t show in your picture. It’s that whole less is more concept. 

I find CLASSIC NEG to be a highly versatile film sim. It seems to work with just about every kind of subject and it produces a very cool and timeless look that holds a great deal of style. It works well in the sunshine and unlike a film sim like Velvia, it actually works quite well in the shade and under white, overcast skies.

Its qualities are accented in a wonderful way when you add the COLOR CHROME FX Blue effect, especially when you have any kind of blue tones in your image, either blue sky or open shade. 

In addition, it’s very customizable. I love dialing the shadow detail up and down to play around with the contrast, and also boosting or cutting the COLOR control, in order to make it even more bold or subdued, depending on the look you’re going for. 

A few weeks ago, I was out photographing at the Knik Glacier, and I took out my X100 to grab a few shots. As soon as I looked through the viewfinder, I was blown away by what I saw. When I looked at the image, I noticed that the camera had been set to Classic Neg, with -2 HL, -2 and +4 color with CCFX Blue Strong and the Grain setting to WEAK.

CLASSIC Neg. -2 Highlights, -2 Shadows, +4 Color.

 

I don’t even remember what I had been shooting, I was probably just messing around with the controls, but that’t what is was on, and it looked amazing. That’s that representational look I was talking about. This color isn’t 100% accurate, that doesn’t really matter to our eyes. Our brain sees beyond that, and in our minds, it just looks really cool.

That’s how well these color sims have been engineered. They’ve been crafted with such careful precision. Not every color recipe looks great, and you can imagine that certain color combinations might look pretty bad. The Fuji colors play so nicely with our brains and with the notion of memorized color, which is a concept I talked about in my last video about using bold and subdued colors in your photography.

CLASSIC NEG also look awesome in combination with the new CLARITY setting you have inside the Q menu. You can crank the clarity up to add nice, bold definition and harder edges to the photo, or you can can it deal it back to soften things up and reduce the overall contrast. Since the CLARITY control goes form +5 to -5, this gives you a lot of leeway for making fine tune adjustments to your image and coming up with unique looks.

Classic Neg, -1 Shadow, +5 Clarity

 

In fact, I’d say that CLASSIC NEG is one of the reason I’ve used my X100V so much this year. As much as I love my X-T3, it doesn’t have CLASSIC NEG, at least not yet. I’ll often take both cameras with me and use them side by side, keeping my X100V set to CLASSIC NEG.

Given that the X100V, X-Pro 3 and X-T3 all have the same internal processor, though, I don’t see any reason why CLASSIC Neg can’t be added the X-T3 and X-T30 in with a future firmware update. I haven’t heard anything from Fuji on this, but I’m going to remain hopeful.

If you do have an older Fuji and are thinking about upgrading, this might be one of the strongest reasons to upgrade to one of the three new models.

As you can see, I really love this new sim, it has a wonderfully rich and characteristic look, and it’s yet one more tool that we have to evoke and inspire different moods with our imagery.

So much of Fujifilm’s legacy is wrapped around film and color, and the film simulations are the extension of that rich heritage in the digital world. I just think that the film simulations are the lifeblood of the X Series cameras, and they foster such a unique style of creativity. They allow you to quickly choose a look that matches your mood and your own creative ideas for the scene, and quickly create an image that matches your own ideas and feelings in the moment. 

So, if you have an X100V, X-Pro 3 or X-T4, I encourage you to give the new Classic Neg a try. I think that once you become familiar with it’s visual characteristics, you’ll find it to be a pretty useful color profile for creating image that have a familiar sense of drama.

You can watch my video tutorial about CLASSIC Neg. here.

Velvia

CLASSIC Neg.

CLASSIC Neg. -2 Shadow Tone, +4 Color

Luminar 4.3 Adds New Camera Support and a Search Tool

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Skylum has released the version 4.3 update to Luminar 4, and with it comes a bread new Search Tool. In addition, they’ve added a number of performance upgrades, a better visual experience when using Looks, and support for some of the latest model cameras, including the Fujifilm X-T4 and X100V.

The new Search Tool is a long awaited feature that adds a totally new functionality to the program, and helps speed up your workflow by streamlining the way that you find your images in the Library.

Located in the Gallery View window, Luminar’s new Search Tool allows you to find images by name, folder, date or extension. (You can watch a quick demo of the search function here). This allows you to quickly locate single images, or batches of images.

You can’t search by caption or keyword yet, but I would imaging that’s coming. As with everything else, the Skylum engineers are moving in steps as they build out the program.

Instead of trying to add everything at once, which make potential problems much more difficult to diagnose, they add one or two new features at a time and improve functionality on a continuous basis. This keeps things much more simple and streamlined in the design process.

That said, even though Luminar’s new Search Tool isn’t quite as powerful as what we’re used to in many programs, it’s a good start, and something they can now build on.

Other Visual & Performance Improvements in v.4.3

In addition to the Search Tool, Luminar 4.3 opens RAW files even faster than before, and overall, the program has been optimized to use considerably less memory, so tools will be more responsive and operate more smoothly. This is especially true with the Crop tool, which has been tweaked for even better performance.

The Looks panel has been improved to give a much better viewing experience. Now, when you hover over a specific Look down in the Looks bar, instead of seeing the preview of that look on the tiny thumbnail, you’ll see the effect previewed on your main image. This will give you a much better idea of how each Look will affect your pictures. (See an example here.)

Luminar has also added support for the latest cameras, including the Fujifilm X-T4, X100V, XT-200, Nikon D780, Z50, Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, Sony A9 II and others from Olympus and Panasonic.

Click here to see all of the new performance enhancements and upgrades in Luminar v.4.3. It’s a free update if you’re already a Luminar 4 user.

If you’re not a Luminar 4 user, you can check out the program here, and if you decide to purchase it, use coupon code DANBAILEY to save $10. 

Shooting for the Moment – Why You Should Embrace the FUJI JPEGS

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In my recent YouTube lesson videos, I’ve been showing you how to use the creative tools inside your Fuji camera in order to expand your “in the moment” creativity when you’re out shooting. I’ve culminated my ideas about this topic in my latest video, … Continue reading →

Creating Custom Looks With Your Fujifilm Camera

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I just posted my latest video tutorial, Creating Custom Looks With Your Fujifilm Camera. You can watch it on my YouTube channel. Expanding on the topics I covered in my previous lesson, where I outlined How To Use Fujifilm’s Highlight … Continue reading →

Video Lesson – How to Use Fuji’s Highlight/Shadow Tone Controls

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I have just uploaded my latest video lesson, How to Use Fujifilm’s Highlight and Shadow Tone Controls. In this 10-minute tutorial, I show you how to make use of one of the most powerful and easy-to-use tools that’s found on … Continue reading →

Embrace the Fun with Luminar’s New Augmented Sky Tool

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The Luminar 4.2 update just came out last week, and included in the latest version are some refined AI Portrait Enhancer tools and the new AI Augmented Sky tool. I’ll just say this right up front. I’m kind of a … Continue reading →