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

While walking in the area around the Eiffel tower, I was looking for some interesting view, that I haven’t seen before. And this is what I got. But I don’t think I’m the first one who took a photo like this. The photographers that live in Paris probably already did all the possible ones already :)

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

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 3, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 35mm, Aperture: 9, Middle exposure time: 8s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.862606, 2.296905

As I mentioned before, I decided to get myself a new Surface pro 4 tablet. And since today it finally arrived, I thought I share with you few first impressions, and why I actually bought it.

This is my third tablet, after an Ipad 2 and a Nexus 7 2013. My main reason to have a tablet, is that I don’t like to cary a laptop with me when I’m traveling. So over the years I tried using iOS and Android, but not really to my satisfactions. The limitations on what one can do on those devices is just too much to handle. Even trying a simple tasks, like creating a new blog post, was just too much. Copy/paste without a mouse is just so strange and slow. And of course, not being able to have Lightroom and Photoshop is quite a big problem.

So when I seen the first Surface Pro, I knew I want one. Of course due to the availability outside US and some money constraints, I got one only now, in the 4th generations. But always better late then newer.

So let’s take a look at my first impressions after few hours of use.

Hardware

I went here for the midrange model, with the Intel i5 processor, 8gb of RAM and 256gb ssd drive. I wold have been probably OK also with a slower version, but I really wanted the 8gb of ram for Photoshop.

The Surface pro 4 looks great. A bit heavier than I would though, but the metal build screams quality. The stand is nice and sturdy, so it does not wobble at all. Having no need for a dedicated tablet stand makes having it on the table so easy. The magnets on the pen and the power connector are crazy strong. When I attach the pen, it feels it it suck it out from my hand :)

The high resolution screen is just beautiful. Very colorful and very bright. I did notice a slight light leak on the bottom edge, but it’s very minimal and only visible during the boot, when the whole screen is black. One thing I learned from my LG monitor is, that a small light leak has no effect on the usage of a device. One forgets about it very quickly (also, I seen few articles, that all IPS screens suffer from this problem).

I’m not used to using a pen on a tablet, so it’s a bit strange for me. Does not completely feel like a normal pen on a paper. Still, it works fine, I haven’t seen any noticeable lag in OneNote or Photoshop.

The Surface got warmer while I tested it, but not really hot. The only time until now I heard the fan, was when I was performing windows update. Still, it’s quite quiet, and I had to turn of all the other sounds in the room to hear it at all.

I don’t yet have the type cover, so can’t tell how that is. I plan to get one, but since I ordered the Surface Pro 4 form Germany, and I want an English keyboard, I have to get that separately.

Software

With software this is a little more hit and miss. After I first started the Surface, I of course did all the updates. There was a new Windows build recently, and also new firmwares for the surface line. For some strange reason, when I was connected to a 2.4ghz wifi, the downloads were very slow (under 1 megabyte per second), but switching to the 5ghz wifi solved this right away (not sure how it is after the update, haven’t yet tried switching back).

Then, between two updates, I got a blue screen error. This is so unusual for Windows 10 in my experience, as on my main desktop PC, I have been using Windows 10 since the first preview, and I never seen one. But it showed up only once, and looks to be gone after the rest of updates (these errors are mostly a hardware problem or bad drivers, here I bet it’s the drivers).

Additionally I run into two smaller problems. One is the task manager showing wrongly the SDD speeds. It shows 100% usage already by few megabytes read per second, while a benchmark program was able to measure much higher numbers (1500mb/s read, 300mb/s write). Still, this does not effect anything.

Secondly, the Intel video driver crashed on me few times. Again, this is more of an annoyance, as it only causes the system to be unresponsive for few seconds, and it than refreshes back. I seen that this has been a problem with most of the users, so hopefully Intel updates the drivers soon.

On the positive side, this tablet is fast, really fast. Using store apps is a breeze, with them loading and switching instantly. I tried Photoshop and Lightroom, and booth start pretty fast, comparable to my desktop PC.

I really like the tablet interface. Just swiping from the left edge opens a list of open programs, swiping form the right opes notifications and quick settings. I do prefer this to having to look for some button or double clicking and similar. It’s really nice to see in the Microsoft apps, how they try to provide a consistent experience through them all, and I hope all other developers will follow suit. Regrettably, some of the apps still use the Windows 8 approach which means that they are controlled a bit differently.

Having a real desktop browser on a tablet is just wonderful. No limitations, no mobile websites and similar. Edge is fast and very responsive. Windows Hello works as advertised, recognizing me withing seconds. The system even recognized my horrible hand writing once I got a little used to writing on the screen.

I haven’t yet tried to edit a photo on the Surface Pro 4, but it the next step, and I will go more about the Photoshop, Lightroom and other software usage in my review (in a week or so), where I will focus more on that. If you would like to know something specific I can check with the surface pro 4, feel free to ask in the comets.

Btw. If you would like the wallpaper that I used in the Surface photos, you can get it from the Wallpapers page.