And again a year passed, and again we got to the Black friday deals. As usually, this is one of the best times you can buy software and tutorials on the web, so same as last year, I will list here the ones I use or I find interesting, with all the discount codes and links where to buy them. And if you would like to know more what software I personally use, you can check out this post, where I show each program I use.

HDRshooter sale

Of course I will start with my own sale :) For the next week you can get my Master exposure blending tutorial videos with a 40% discount. Just use the code “BF2015” on checkout.

For more info, check the Master exposure blending page here.

Trey Ratcliff videos

From the 26th to the 30th, you will get 30% off from most of Treys tutorial videos, so head over to the StuckInCustoms store to check them out.

Btw. also the new HDR software the Aurora Pro is also available from Trey and Macphun. No discount there, but if you buy it now, you get a free copy of the Macphun plugin Noiseless.

Infocusdeal

At Infocusdeals you can get a nice video tutorial collection all about landscape photography from many talented photographers (Colby Brown, Ian Plant, Sean Bagshaw and more). You can check out the content and buy them (for 49usd) at the Infocusdeals website.

500px subscription

500px is currently running a 30% off promotion for the black friday, for their Plus and Awesome accounts. No promo code needed. Discount applied at checkout. More at 500px.com.

Smugmug Subscription

Same as last year, Smugmug is again offering a 40% off discount for new subscribers. So if you need a good portfolio site, I suggest you check it out. More info on the discount, on the smugmug blog here.

Topaz Collection

The Topaz Collection from Topaz Labs, which now with the new Topaz Texture Effects includes 17 different products, is normally sold for 499.99 USD, but from the 25th to the 30th you can pick up the whole collection for just 249.99 USD, that’s 50% off. To do so, you have to use the code “BLACKFRIDAY2015” at checkout. You can find the whole collection at the Topaz Store.

Imagenomic plugins

I’ve been using their Noiseware plugin for years now, and so can you, and much cheaper today :) Imagenomic is offering a 30% off discount on all their plugins from the 26th to the 30th, with the code “BF2015“. Here you can find Noiseware on Imagenomic site, but allso all the other plugins their provide.

Macphun

Macphun is running a big promotion on their Creative Kit plugins collection, where for 89.99 usd you don’t just get the plugins, but a lot of tutorials, textures and other discounts. You can find it on the Macphun website. The offer is valid from the 21st November to the 1st December.

On1 plugins

On1 is having a sale on most of their software today, ranging from 20% to 50% off. You can head over to their web-page for more info, no code required.

Moo cards

The company Moo, which I mentioned yesterday, is having a cyber monday sale of 30% off on all products on monday the 30th. I think those that used them before can use the discount imediately (they send out a promo email about this :)), all other, on the 30th November. You can check out their website here at Moo.com.

Manga Studio 5 & CLIP STUDIO PAINT PRO

This is not really photography related, but since I just picked up a copy for myself, maybe some of you will also find it interesting :) Manga studio (or Clip Studio Paint pro, as it’s the same software) is a really nice drawing software for your PC or Mac. And right now they are having a 65% off discount, where it costs only 14.99 usd. You can find out more on their official page.

//update

Oloneo Photoengine

One of my favorite HDR softwares has the biggest sale I ever seen from them. A whooping 50% off until the December 28th. Thats 62 euro instead of regular 128 euro (+tax). This software I can only highly recommend. You can find it on their homepage www.oloneo.com, and the discount coupon should be applied for you. If not, it is “CHRISTMAS2015PE“.

That’s all for now, If I find any more interesting ones during the day, I will update the post :)

I wrote about the Moo businesses cards before, but as it was time to reorder again, I thought I mention them and their new product here.

I’ve been using Moo business cards for quite a while now. You can easily create sets, where every single card has a different photo on the back. So one side is always the same, with the other side showcasing your work. It really looks nice, and you can even choose if you want rounded corners or not, and the type of paper. Here are my new updated ones, where I changed the text color, to fit with the blog colors I’m using since this year :)

The new product Moo has introduced recently, are their Business cards +. On first glance, they look exactly the same as the regular cards (but are a bit pricier :)). But there is one difference. All these cards include a NFC chip inside. So if you touch the card to the back of your phone or tablet, that supports NFC, a defined actions will be performed. This can either be opening a website, add a contact, open an app in the store or forward to different social platform.

This is actually not done directly. Moo stores a link to their website in the card, and that link forwards the user to whatever you want. You can anytime go, login into Moo website and change what the NFC chip does.

Here are my Business cards +, but I made one mistake while creating them. And it was not apparent, until a fellow photographer pointed it out. I forgot to add the NFC logo into the cards design, so if I give the card to someone, and don’t tell them about the NFC, they will have no idea that it’s there. One just sometime has to learn on ones own mistakes :) Will be better next time.

To lean more about Moo cards, and their range of products, please visit their page here Moo.com.

A bit similar photo to the one I posted two days ago, again a brige a reflection and a sunset. But this time regrettably, from the place where one could get a nice view of the bridge, one could not see the sun. It does make the photo a little less colorful. I could have added more color in post-processing, but it would not feel real to me afterwards.

This is a 3 shot HDR, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 5, Camera Model: Canon 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 16mm, Aperture: 16, Middle exposure time: 1s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 51.974239, 5.911694

As I mentioned yesterday, today I will show you how to remove dust spots in Lightroom and Photoshop. This is more for the beginners among you, as I hope that the more advanced and pro users know this perfectly. And for those lazy to read, I’m including a 5min video at the end, where I show all I described here :)

Lightroom

In Lightroom the process is quite straightforward. You go into the Develop module, choose Spot removal, choose the size, and then just click on the spots. It will choose a second spot, from where to replace the are you clicked on. You can even click on the selection and move it around, to get a better result.

Still, if you have problems seeing the dust spots in the photo, Lightroom has a handy selection, called Visualize Spots (int the bottom left, visible only when Spot removal is selected). Checking this will change the image showing just the edges. You can also move the slider next to it, to change how detailed the effect is, so you can see more or less, so easily identifying the dust spots.

Photoshop

In photoshop you can use either the:
– Spot healing brush tool – select it, choose content aware in the top selection, and just brush over the dust spots
– Healing brush tool – select it, Alt + click on an similar area without a dust spot and than paint over the dust spot (similar to clone stamp tool)
– Patch tool – select it, drag a selection around the dust spot and then drag the selection onto a clean area

These all are in the same group on the tools menu, and mostly provide the same results. But there are instances, where you are better with using some of them. Especially when repairing and areas with patterns, lines or texture, you are better off using the patch tool, and dragging your selection onto a spot with similar look as the brushes usually don’t preserve textures, and you are loosing detail.

Same as in Lightroom, you can make it easier to see the dust spots in your photo. Just add a new curves adjustment layer on top of it, (click on the half white/half black circle button in bottom right under layers and choose curves) and create a very strong curve. To do this, click on the line in the first half and drag up, then click on the line in second half and drag down. You will immediately see the difference. Now just select back the layer with the photo, clean the dust spots and then delete the curves layer, as it’s not needed anymore.

For a little more visual explanation, here is a short video where I’m showing all of this I have described here, and if there are still any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

You would not believe how many dust spots I had to remove from this photo :) But the reason is simple. My ND filter is in a horrible condition, since my trip to Paris few years ago (not the last one), when while I was moving to a new location, the ND filter got lose from the lens, and feel onto a road. While the glass did not brake, it did get damaged, and can’t really be fully cleaned anymore. But it does work, even if I should think of a replacement soon. And I think I will also do a post about how to remove dust spots in Photoshop, maybe tomorrow :)

This is a HDR from 5 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 5, Camera Model: Canon 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 16mm, Aperture: 22, Middle exposure time: 3s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.139609, 17.105068