Perez Studios

I came across an article today when I was getting caught up on some RSS feeds and one that got my attention was from the Digital Photography School.  It mentions the fact that today, photographers cant just be photographers.  They have to master so many different areas in order to stay in the game and keep up with the rest of the competition.  I, myself try to keep up with things and it seems to overwhelm me with my full-time job and my part-time life. 

I thought this article was a great read and I recommend you all read it as well.

Here is the link to the article.

Thanks for reading!

Semper Fidelis,

Manuel Perez

I have been pretty busy and haven’t had a chance to post on the blog.  Things have been crazy.  I tried applying for a job closer to home but didn’t have much luck with that!  I will have to keep trying.  I have a couple of things that are on my plate at the moment.  I had a wedding Saturday that I did and plan to upload some photos from that just as soon as I can.  Last week I went on a field trip with my daughter’s class to Columbia in California.  It was a nice place and a lot of history.  I heard the teachers say how glad they were the weather was cooler than it usually is because it could have gotten hot. 

Here is a photo of the old school house at the top of the hill.  I threw it in Photoshop to add some effects to it.  I had this other shot in mind but there were some people in the way and the rest of our group was leaving me behind. 

That all for today.  Thanks for reading.

Manuel Perez

While doing some research on the web on Adobe Lightroom, I came across a site from Adobe that is called Adobe TV.  The site actually has videos that show you how to use the Adobe programs.  I was amazed at all the helpful information that they have for viewers and what is even better is that it is all free.  I studied up on Adobe Lightroom and have been playing with the program to familiarize myself with the program.  I was amazed how Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop work hand in hand together to automate photos.  I even learned how catalogs work.  If you want to learn more or share your experience with Adobe TV then please do so.

Over the years I have hated the fact that I didn’t have the patience to go and touchup people’s faces in Adobe Photoshop.  I gave it up actually and fixed just the major issues with a charge of course.  That was until I came across Portrait Professional which is a very powerful program that allows you to draw the outline or major features of a face and it does all the touching up for you.  If you look at the photo above and look to the left you see a girl with a case of bad acne.  On the right you see the work that Portrait Professional does.  If you are into portraits and need to do a lot of touching up I highly recommend it. 

You can purchase Portrait Professional by going to http://www.portraitprofessional.com/ and paying $69.95 right now.  If you are interested in a free trial they offer that as well.

Hello All!

It has been a while since my last post.  I have been really thinking about my career and the thought of moving out of the photography field for a profession has crossed my mind.  I have thought more about doing landscapes and selling my work that way.  Not sure yet but I just feel like I get more pleasure out of just shooting landscapes.

I feel like there isn’t as much pressure like shooting weddings, parties and other events.  I could do without the stress. 

Well, here is a photo that I caught on my way to work.  I was turning on Brannon Ave. and noticed the sun just peaking over some clouds that had been in the area the day before and it looked amazing.  I used Adobe Photoshop to modify the colors and lighting and also adjusted the shadows.

Tell me what you think…

This is a photo of some men working in a field.  The field was an old tomato field that they are stripping of all the irrigation lines that were buried in the field.  They are using a John Deere tractor to help pull the irrigation lines out of the ground.  I took this photo on my way to work one morning.  I used Adobe Photoshop to convert it to Black and White.

I recently began using Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom and I must say that I am impressed.  It is a very powerful tool that allows you to import and manage your photo library.  I like the way it will allow you to customize the import options so that you are in control.  It also lets you keep control of your photos’ location by keeping them where they are.  This can be bad because if you move or rename any file or folders then you will have lost the connection from Lightroom and it will delete the file.  I haven’t got too far into the nitty gritty but I am running out of space on my machine and cant have all of my photos on the same drive so I will try to experiment with importing files from CD/DVD and see how that works. 

I do love one feature and that is the ability to write meta data to the photos.  You can add keywords and tags straight from the program or the import.  It all depends on you. 

If anyone hasn’t had a chance to play with Lightroom yet, I highly suggest it.  It might make your photography career move a lot smoother.  If anyone is already using Lightroom and would love to share their feedback on it, then please let us hear about it.

I did a trial of Alien Skin’s software called Bokeh for Adobe Photoshop.  I compared Bokeh and Focal Point from OnOne Software and I believe that Focal Point is just too much easier than Bokeh. 

I thought that Bokeh would be easier because of Alien Skin’s other software products but  I found out I was wrong.  Maybe I need more training on the program but I found its whole navigation and customizing layers and using the effects more difficult compared to the Focal Point’s easy bar that lets you adjust the settings for each effect. 

Bokeh does have one plus probably and that is that it probably doesnt require a specific video card where I had to purchase a new one for OnOne’s Focal Point. 

If anyone has any details to share or experiences about either one of the programs I would love to hear about them.

Recently, I began a trial on using OnOne’s Plug-In Suite for Adobe Photoshop and I must say that I was very impressed.  It makes things so much easier with all of the built-in effects and snap-ins.  It has the ability to enlarge photos, make photos pop and so much more.

I love the PhotoTools plug-in because of all of the cool stuff that it allows you to do with just the click of a button.  It asks you for some options but it shows you instantly right there what the before photo looked like and what the after will look like. 

I am seriously considering purchasing this program because it gives photographers a lot of power without having to know all of this computer, art and Photoshop tricks.  It takes all of the features and gives them to the ordinary person. 

If you want more information make sure you check out the OnOne Software web site.  If you are using OnOne and want to share your experience with it then please feel free to.  If you are using another plug-in that is similar then share the name of the program and I will do a trial and let others know my opinion on it.  I am trying to compare the OnOne plug-in to Bokeh’s plug-in.  I will keep you all posted.