Alien Skin Exposure 4 Photographic Software Review

There is nothing more wonderful than exploring new tools or ways for something you are passionate about.

 

A B&W Infra-Red (IR) processing of a red barn and green fields

What is the Purpose of this Software?
Exposure is an add-on photo-editing application for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Elements that provides almost a complete list of film types, both B&W and Color, for processing for the digital darkroom. I say almost as I didn't count the list of film types in this application and I don't even know all the films that have ever been made, but they sure seem to be all here.
 

'Sepia – blue Finish (modified)' setting with a layer set to 'Lighten' mode (31%) for an Expsure 4 ver. of 'Kodak HIE (Halation moderate)'

One test of software is to see how it feels right out of the box. A lot like taking a performance sports car for a test drive. You may not know everything about it but you know how to drive and turn corners.

I never read the manual first as I believe that a person with reasonable skills on the computer and with digital editing should know how to turn it on and drive around a little. 
 
Exposure 4 did not fail here. It was easy to install and when launched, the layout and buttons were intuitive. The only problem I had was that it was almost 2 hours later when I realized how much I had been playing with the different types of films.

How would I use this Photo-Editing Software?

Exposure 4 has a great repertoire of classic, vintage and just plain old films both in color and B&W. Combined with these types of film selections are the various processing adjustments you might make in a wet darkroom, such as contrast, toning, bleaching, cross-processing, calotype, platinum and much more.

Some of these are obvious as the IR and Platinum and High contrast B&W I have shown above. Even old color films with faded color can provide unique approaches to the photographic images.


Without having access to the original old photograph, an older reproduction could be re-made. This could be cast against another image to create a story of 'then and now' and subject of an interesting photographic book.

In the image above I took 2 photos and I applied old color film technique to the bordered version to create the effect of laying an old photo on a new photo to show a change over time.

How well does it Perform?
Having a 7 processors and 12TB of RAM there should be no speed issues with loading and applying application settings. It was just over a sec to load and less to applying any film setting. The window is originally set up with 3 panels. Large central being the photo being edited. The panel on the right is the main adjustment panel color. See composite below. There is enough functionality to do almost everything you want.


A minor problem with the numbers dialog boxes. When you enter a number it doesn't apply until you click the panel and if you use the Enter key it applies the Exposure 4 application. I would rather have that only happen when I click the OK button.

The panel on the left are all the pre-set film settings which are based on some combination of settings on the right panel. This is great because once you found a style that suits your needs you can then tweak it to best suit the photograph.


I did find that using the color filter produced better color (brighter) for me than using the same color on a layer in Photoshop. It might be the preserve luminosity check box.


With my sample photos the rendering of effects was clean with no noticeable distortions unless of course you cranked the saturation way up.


I like that both side panels can be minimized and it's easy to zoom into a section for better clarity. With a 24” monitor some apps don't allow full screen editing.
I also like how you can save your own presets.

The above image is from one I tested since I had created a B&W version previously. The software did produce versions that I liked as well and maybe even better than the original.



Who is this Software meant for?
For anyone how wants to experience the look of chemical film technology and its variant processes.
Definitely for commercial ad type photographic needs. Here with the press of a button, a vintage effect can be created without much time spent by the user.
For creative types who may want to create story-line or books where the type of photograph is integral to the story experience
For fine-art photographers that require a specific look, as with my image of the tree and bench, that is not easily achieved in Photoshop.
To create new layers that can be set to one of the blend modes. There is a practice to create a B&W version of your image that looks best and then set this to luminosity for your color photo. While I haven’t experimented that much with these I suspect I will find some of the film output useful as a blend mode.

Recommendations
This is a good solid product that provides a wealth of film types and genres. It is easy to use and intuitive.
I would give this software a 4 – 4 ½ rating. The limiting factor would be price for a new user at approx $249. but an upgrade is only $99.
As an investment, I view software the same as a lens. It's a tool to help you meet your needs or goals. Many people find the cost of software somewhat prohibitive and yet see no problem with spending more on a new lens. I love a lens also as there's something about that precision instrument you are holding. But I photo-edit every photo I show to the public. I always want to bring out the very best and convey the feelings and experience I had at the time I took the photograph. The straight out-of-the-camera version doesn’t give me this. It is a mechanical device and not a human.



Definitely do download a trial version and play with it.

Niels Henriksen

Disclaimer: Other than receiving a copy of the software to review, I did not or will not receive any remunerations, gifts or any considerations from this review from the company, its agents or any of its distributors

Buildings of San Miguel

This is a story that evolves over time. Every year as I explore new parts of town or even revisit other parts at different times of the day, there are new buildings emerging. Not new in the sense of being just built but new in the sense of discovery. Especially when its not your town and even not your region, everything is so different.

Along the side of the Biblioteca on Relox

This is almost an abstract image with 3 main sections. I wanted the yellow to be dominant so I increased the contrast in this section and a bit in saturation. On some monitors if not calibrated it will display as very bright yellow, whereas it should be a bit soft. I darkened the blue and decreased saturation to make the yellow appear brighter. I didn't want to lighten the whole road so I increased the brightness in the highlights and strengthened the yellows.


Sometimes you get a 'batch perfect apples in the basket' so to speak. In the image below, the house was painted a blue to match the strong blue skies of San Miguel. The sky is also a darker blue here at approx. 7,000 ft. Strong blues ranging from this sky color to almost navy-blue can be found on several homes.

Near the corner of Aldama on a walk-only side street between Xichu and Oje de Agua
Google map reference (20.90370, -100.7432)


A very skinny house. Not sure what it's used for. I guess someone wanted to build a house in an alleyway. I seen places like this in Toronto where the house is 3 storeys high and 10' wide. This building in San Miguel may be actually skinnier.

Even with a 18mm lens I needed to stitch 2 vertical photos to get the whole building in one combined photo.


San Miguel, like most Mexican towns, is always undergoing some sort of building repainting. The standard building colors are yellow, rusty-orange, burnt-red, and some white. They may be repainted these same colors or even repainted a vibrant new color such as blue. That's why in Google Street View the photos of the buildings may not now be as shown in Google. Sometimes as in the photo below there has been some new painting with bolder colors.

This small section of buildings has all the colors of the rainbow and a few extra. Corner of Aldama and Terraplén



This colorful green building with just enough red to give it some accent caught my interest I. It wasn't until after I looked around that I realized that it was beside the entrance to the Bull Fighting Ring.

And sometimes with luck a car drives by, whose color enhances the photo of the building.

Next year I will be in San Miguel for six (6) months and I be conducting photo-walks again. If you are in the area then drop me a line and we can go out and photograph this lively town together.


Niels Henriksen

Festivals in San Miguel de Allende

It seems like there is always some sort of festival going on in San Miguel. In fact, there really is. Most of these are tied to religious or Mexican national events, but at times there also those unexpected festivals. When they involve children they can make for extra special photographic events. And who doesn’t love the smiles and special faces that children can make. Add a few costumes and now there is magic in the air.

Last year and again this year there was the multicultural school event with kids coming from many districts. I wasn't paying special attention to the date as I didn’t even know it was happening again. I only came by the festival when I was heading by the Jardin. Which is a daily ritual for me in my treks around town. I didn't notice the festival event in the local paper Atencion which is great for highlighting events in and around town. There is always so much going on that it's easy to miss one, or sometimes the festival's name is in Spanish and it may not be evident by its title.

I asked one of the girls participants to pose with the rose as she seemed to have the best smile of all of them.

She and the boy in the image above were the central characters in their school skit.

The pair of them started off sitting on a bench and the boy appeared to reject the advances of the girl. I believe that this was part of a Valentines theme as every person had a heart on their palms.

After a short interval, with the music was playing all the time, the rest of their class mates joined them on stage and performed a choreographed dance.

It was great fun to watch and in this photo you can see all their hearts on their hands.

A few weeks later I came across an art festival called “Thank You Art' project. This is were kids and some adults, me included, glued coloured tissue paper to a clear plexiglass sheet.

They were allowed to cut the sheets into strange shapes or with cut-outs and even write messages on their sheets.

Then they were glued on top of each other in a multitude of different colors. When the panels were hung in a lighted area they glowed like stained glass panels.

During my photographing of the kids enjoying themselves one of the directors of the project asked me if they could use some of my photos for the up coming display of the final glass sheets.

I was fortunate to have several of my images selected for the Art show in the Biblioteca that ran for 2 weeks.

They printed my images 39cm x 52 cm (15” x 20”) and hung them on the wall around the 2 plexiglass sheets that looked like large stained glass windows.

When in San Miguel you should always, and I mean always, have your camera with you as you never know what's just waiting around the next corner. Three times during my winter stay I did not take my camera with me and I regretted it each time. Now I don't leave home without it. It may be a bit heavy so I carry it in my backpack.

Niels Henriksen

Why Photographing Hats Can Improve Your Street People Photography

This wasn’t something that I consciously knew, maybe deep down we all tend to know these types of things, but something I discovered while undertaking a new photography project in San Miguel de Allende.

There are many, many ideas to photograph in San Miguel. Doors are a very common theme, I did one last year and one I am continuing this year. I was looking for something different and with the almost constant blue skies and bright sun, even stronger at 6,800 feet, most people if not all the gringos wear hats.

Everyday I walk around photographing almost anything and everything. Great fun and focusing on Hats gave me a new challenge.

I am reserved when it comes to photographing people out and about on the street. I feel reluctant to invade their privacy but deep down I love how people relate and engage the city streets. Here in Mexico, being such a tourist destination, the locals are even more wary of being photographed and many times hide there face or just look away. If a person is not comfortable with their photo being taken I won't take it.

A different type of sun covering

When I photographed street people I tended to hesitate too long (should I or not) with taking the shot and the impromptu moment was lost as they tended to now be aware of the camera.

This man is not praying but doing close-up photography of the cactus

I found out after the fact that when I was just focusing on people's hats I tended to think less of the person and more on the object of the hat. This allowed me to be quicker with the decision to shoot and also it allowed me to shoot more often.

Who wouldn't love this big Mexican hat

Because I was focusing on an object it even allowed me to approach people and ask then if I could photograph them with their hat as this was a project of mine. I think people felt more comfortable in letting me photograph them because I wasn't really just photographing them. It was an inanimate object and somehow that was OK.

A hatted man with lots of hats

I suggest you give yourself a try at this project and see if you don't now photograph more people.

Niels Henriksen

An Explosion of Colors at the El Señor de la Conquista Festival in San Miguel de Allende

The one thing I enjoy most about San Miguel de Allende is that you'er busy. I'm taking photographs everyday, meeting old and new friends and enjoying lots of events. There are many artist shows opening every week and then there's the special film showing and theater plays. The downside, at least for my blog readers, is the problem with actually getting down and writing a new article.

I was working on a theme and then on Friday the 2nd of March there was the 'El Señor de la Conquista' Festival in San Miguel de Allende in and around the center square called 'el Jardin'.

There were 5 different groups from local towns nearby each with their own style of dress and costumes. Withh such a display of colors and action it was not hard to keep photographing as they almost performed continuously for 10 hours. There was a small break in the afternoon as they started around 10:00am and continued until 9:00pm.

Even the people resting provided good photographic opportunities.

It's easy to see from the next photo how much these dancers enjoyed and were engrossed with their performances.

During breaks they laid their headdress on the ground.

The music playing and drums resonated over the whole town all day long and if you wanted a quiet spot you almost had to head out of town.

Great costumes and action.

Even fathers and sons participated.

San Miguel is first an historic town with stunning architecture but the festivals which almost happen every weekend during some months add that extra spice and color to your stay here.

Niels Henriksen

Using the Camera GPS to find the Sunken Church In San Miguel

I've now been in San Miguel de Allende for almost 6 weeks, about half way through our winter stay here. I have been enjoying all flavours and experiences that this city has to offer. I've even experienced some of the standard tourist events such as fighting with the Aztec gods (Montezuma of course). This laid me low for a few days but unfortunately after a few days when I thought I was getting better I developed a secondary infection that required visiting the doctor and getting medication. Now after 2 weeks I'm finally starting to get the spring back in my step and venturing back out. This does curtail your photography.

But back to the GPS item. Several weeks ago my friend Mike took me out to see the sunken church on the large shallow lake south-east of San Miguel.  The lake is really a reservoir and during the dry season, winter here, the church becomes fully visible.  The ground is still too mucky to be able to walk all the way out, but you can get close enough for some good shots.

If you look closely you can see some cacti growing out of the top portion of the church spire and therefore the church is not completely sunken.

What was really surprising when we first arrived was that we saw pelicans, which to many may not be unusual near water but this is at an elevation of 6,000ft and and 550 km from the nearest ocean.

I've been using on-camera GPS for almost 3 years, at least capturing the meta data with the image but I've never had to really use the info as until now I've always known exactly where I was. Not this time as this was new territory, so when I tried to use the Nikon format to enter into Google maps it took a while to find a site that would convert correctly.

Nikon gives a format such as:

Longitude:  20,52.1567N

Latitude:     100,50.1574W

Altitude:     1853m

Nikon is not DDD, MMM, SSS (Degrees, Minutes , Seconds but in format of DDD, MMM.MMMM)

Whereas Google maps required decimal degrees only in format DDD.DDDDD.

After some web searching I did find one site that would provide conversion in the Nikon format.

Nikon GPS Converter

In the Google map below the green arrow shows where I took the photo of the church above and the red arrow the top of church spire above the water.  This Google map (satellite view) was taken when the area was flooded. It is a bit strange to see that where you were standing is now underwater. A little north east of red arrow is a round ring. This is visible in the last photo of this article.

Towards the hill on the south-east in the map above is another church, not sunken but still abandoned.

Most of the foliage,except for the cacti at this time of year, is brown. This make a colour image rather drab. But converting to B&W and adding some contrast can make the photo stand out more.

In the image below the green cacti with a blue sky does make a colour version work better.

Below is the map and the green arrow shows where I was standing taking the photo above with the cacti.

As you can see the camera GPS is very accurate in capturing within feet where you where standing at the time when photograph is taken.

Another version of the sunken church where you can see the round ring that shows up beside the spire in the Google water map.

  Church with ring structure

Niels Henriksen

The Making of a Fine-Art Print 'Man, Lantern and Orange Wall'

I am once again in San Miguel de Allende and for the last 2 weeks I've been like a young boy running around in a large candy shop. It feels great to be back and there have been so many favourite places to visit and most importantly eat some great food.  I have managed to photograph some new scenes and these will be the subject of future articles.

Last year I photographed the image below from the section of the Casa Mission on Cerrada de Pila Seca which is only a walking street that runs behind Cafe Monet. I was initially struck by the strong primary colors, the lantern and its shadow and the texture on the wall, but when I printed it, it seemed to lack something to give it extra punch. Some extra texture.

Man, Lantern and Orange wall   12” x 16.5”

Final image with texture added

I tried several generic textures that I had on file, mostly splatter type patterns but none provided the effect that I wanted. Not that I knew what I wanted but I felt that when I saw it, it would feel right.

From the article title you may wonder about the man. If you look closely at the image you should be able to see a man walking in amongst tall bare trees and their branches. It is subtle and that's what I wanted but it's there in the image. Only by accident, I decided to try other B&W images that were actual images. I came across one image with a man walking amongst tall trees and when I overlaid on colorful wall image it worked for me.

In the detailed close-up below the man becomes clearly visible.

The print I made is 12” by 16.5” and to all I showed the print, no one could see the man. In fact, several people showed other areas that they thought was man, which became an added twist to the print.

The overlay photograph is shown below.

A fine-art photograph is about what inspires you. It not about what others are doing with their art or what people think is right or wrong.

Don't be intimated with experimenting or concerned that others don't get it. If you like the results and it provides meaning for you then it's a perfect piece of art work.  With so many people on the planet you can be sure that there will be some that find your work inspirational.

When I printed my final proof photograph which I keep around to ensure that my impressions don't change, one was immediately spoken for.

This photograph is printed on 300 gram, 13” x 19:, Ilford pearl paper. Usually, I tend to print on textured fine-art matte/watercolor paper but this image called for more vibrancy in the colours.

My prints are limited within a series and these are normally sets to 5. If I do another series they will be different in some form, either paper selection and other tonal attributes or printed larger. But any future series will  be sold  at a price that is higher by a reasonable margin than the highest price for the previous series.

2 prints, unframed,  are currently available at the

Orange Gallery   near the Parkdale market in Ottawa

It's just a coincident that the major color of this print and the art gallery are the same.

Niels Henriksen

A Very Social Christmas and A Happy Connected New Year

I want to wish everyone, whether you celebrate Christmas or other seasonal festivities, a very happy holiday season and a great new year with many new opportunities for creative growth.

From the title you may guess that I am talking about social media, which I am, but more about how I try to fit within that world.

Taken in 1955 in Denmark at 4 years old and trying to be a grown-up

I believe that, like many people, I seem to have those social connections that you need to link with other people. This works fine if I need to talk or connect with someone but I’m not sure how my articles about photography and other art works all fit within the new worlds of social media. How do I remain fresh and new with all these social outlets competing for the same information.

I have My Camera World Blog this and there is a corresponding Facebook page

FaceBook My Camera World

There is also my art blog ' Niels Henriksen Artworks ' where I post articles about my artwork, whether a painting, fine art photography or other mediums. This is again is matched on Facebook with Facebook - Niels Henriksen Artworks 

Who says all self portraits have to be ugly. Well maybe they are.

There is also just plain old me on Facebook at Niels Henriksen. This Facebook page was initially just to connect with people I talk to regularly but I find I do post mostly about my photography and paintings.

I have also loaded some of my photographs on Niels Henriksen on Flickr

Please take the time to connect and I'll connect back so I can see some of your photographs.

My first studio work where I placed my model battle ships and tried to created a war scene. DOF and focus what's that.

Then there’s my Linkedin page which is only visible if you are on linkedin and we have connected.

Since we are heading back to San Miguel de Allende for 3 months in Jan I have contacted people about conducting walkabouts with some basic photography lessons included. More than 20 people have shown an interest. To help co-ordinate these walk-abouts and share photos I created a Facebook page ' San Miguel de Allende Photography Club '.

Even at 12 years of age I had penchant for the abstract. Honestly this was not an accidental shot, at least that's what I say now.

And just lately I've signed on to Goolge+ but as yet haven’t posted anything and that’s the dilemma. How do I remain somewhat fresh across all the media outlets? I just don't want to re-post the same material available on other sites. I don't mind using some of the same images if there is some contextual difference for the audience.

This year I want to get a better handle on the whole social media culture and ensure that on each site there is something new and relevant to the reader.

I sure would like to here how you are handling your multiple media streams with your content or any ideas about what would work.

Please feel free to connect with me on any or all these social sites as I'm happiest when I'm connected with you.

Niels Henriksen

What to do When a Photo is Missing Parts

There are times when I'm walking around enjoying the scenery and occasionally taking what I think are interesting photographs around town and I forget to compose correctly. This is normally not noticed until I review them later as I tend not to look at each shot when taken.

This is a different shooting mode than when I really want something special. Then the histogram is reviewed and for images with strong contrast several exposures may be taken. And if tripod is available it will be used.

The above image is the final edited version that I wanted but failed to capture correctly.

Part of the problem is that I wear glasses and sometimes I don't remove them when looking in the camera view finder. I do when the image is critical but for shoot and grab shots I tend to place viewfinder only on the glass face and if I don't line up correctly the image is off centre to what I see.

If you have taken several photos then there may be parts in others that you can use to correct test perfect sections.

In the 3 photos combined below, the far left image is the one I wanted (#1) but as you can see, it's missing parts like the feet and sidewalk. The 2 other photos (middle #2 and right #3) are ones I used to fill in missing sections and cover parts that needed to be removed. The big problem with the other photographs is that they are from different angles and perspectives and therefore, a direct overlay to match parts will not work. You will need to stretch, twist and rotate a little to make the parts fit.

In the next composite photo below with the main image, I extracted the parts of each section that was used to reconstruct the final photograph.

Image #1 provides a good frame-work (base layer) for the whole of photo, except I wanted the lady in image #2

Image #2 was cut and placed on a separate layer and set to difference mode to make it easier to see when frame matches as it all turns black. I needed her bottom feet from another image (#3) to finish off her legs.

There was still the problem of the missing parts of the steps from part #2 which was added by image #4.

Rather than placing a whole copy of another image on top and using masking for desired parts and moving around, I recommend only cutting out the main parts from another file and copying to the working file. The reason for this is that when you zoom in on a large image to examine the fit, the handles are no longer available to use for positioning as these are at the edges of image. By only using a cropped parts, the handles for positioning are now just outside the smaller part and available for use even when zoomed in.

This is a lot of work and not for everyone. It would be easier to retake the photograph, if possible, but if you're on vacation or it's an impromptu moment, it may not be possible. This process allows you to get the photograph that you wanted but somehow missed.

I do realize that I need to be more careful when using glasses and maybe a monocle for the other eye would work. This is one advantage that EV viewfinders on back of camera work well for people with glasses.

Niels Henriksen