20 Nov 2020

Exposure X6 is Still the Best for Film Looks

Exposure X6 has a selection of new features and capabilities that make it a valuable addition to any photographer's toolbox. Although new automatic corrections are helpful, the star of this version is the Advanced Color Editor that provides a way to change colors

Exposure has come a long way in the past 15 years. Initially it was a plug-in for Photoshop that created the look of various film stocks, both monochrome and color, negative and transparency. Exposure became such a major part of Alien Skin's offerings that eventually the company name was changed to Exposure Software.

Exposure operates as an independent application as well as a plug in for Photoshop and Lightroom Classic. The new version is faster because it supports the computer's graphics processor unit (GPU). Automatic adjustments choose what the application considers to be the best settings for each image, but then allows the photographer to modify them as desired.

The automatic settings control white balance based on input from metadata the camera includes with the image and attempts to get the color right regardless of what type of light the image was captured in. Auto exposure examines both highlights and shadows and then makes adjustments to retain maximum detail. An automatic haze level control limits atmospheric haze and is also useful for images that have strong backlighting. And an automatic contrast control adjusts the image's overall contrast without changing the hue.

But I said the new Advanced Color Editor is the star of the show. It expands the capabilities of Exposure’s 3D color masking to give the photographer the ability to change an object's color. Some subjects are easy to modify. Imagine an orange car that needs to be a blue car. This is the kind of image that's often used to demonstrate a feature like this because it's easy. If there's nothing else that's orange in the photo, the process will be quick and accurate.

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Exposure Software provided a sample image by Randy Kepple, who changed the color of the blue car to green. Note that there are similar blues in the subject's shirt and in the background. This required masking to remove unwanted color shifts.

I wanted to try something a bit more challenging. Three years ago, I was leaning against a railing at my younger daughter's house. A bright red umbrella was behind me, and I thought a photo with that as a background might be interesting. So I used the selfie mode of the camera in my smart phone and captured an OK image. What if I'd like to change that so that I'm in front of a blue umbrella?

I used the color selector to choose red from the umbrella as the source color and then rotated the destination color to a shade of light blue. The umbrella was perfect, but look at my face. There's a significant amount of red in the flesh tone of White people, so part of my face ended up with some blue coloring.

Every change made in Exposure X6 includes a mask, so all I needed to do with paint a black mask over the parts of my face that were blue. Changing the color took about two minutes and adding the mask added a few more minutes to the task. So in less than ten minutes I had modified the image so that the red umbrella was blue.

The before (left) and after (right) images show how effective the process is.

Honoring Exposure's Legacy

Photographers have depended on Exposure to create the look of analog films in digital images and that continues with dozens of film looks included, hundreds (and probably thousands) of additional LUTs available for download. LUT is the acronym for look-up-table, the system used to store information about each look. Users can also create their own and save them or modify existing looks and save the modifications. The result is a nearly infinite number of modifications that can be applied to an image and then be allowed to stand alone or be combined with the original image for a look that's between the original and the full modification.

Exposure provided an image by Alejandro Gutinerrez, who used Exposure to enhance a romantic beach scene. The original image is flat and a person near the right edge of the image is distracting. Highlights, whites, vibrance, and sharpening were adjusted to enhance the details, and then the photographer added a vignette and a subtle split toning adjustment.

To illustrate one of the monochrome looks, I started with an image I took on the campus of Ohio State University in the early days of the pandemic lockdown. There were no in-person classes on campus and few people on the Oval.

I wondered if I could take this campus image back in time, so I applied the look of a platinum print.

Exposure X6 can be used as a standalone application that imports, catalogs, and edits photos, or as a plug-in for Lightroom and Photoshop. Those who have a long history with Photoshop and Lightroom Classic may not want to change their workflow, so it can be used in conjunction with those programs and also as a plug-in for Capture One.

Those who choose to use Exposure as a standalone product will find image cataloging easy to use. Choose folders to include by bookmarking them and Exposure will browse, catalog, and search them in real time. There's no import process, but you'll still need to copy images from the camera to folders on your computer.

If the computer has more than one monitor, you can display the edit panel full screen on the secondary monitor, which can be either the left or right monitor. Just drag the main Exposure window to the right monitor and the "secondary" display window to the left monitor. This assumes your "primary" monitor is the left monitor. If you don't have a secondary monitor, the edit screen will be in the center of the main Exposure window.

Non-Destructive Editing

Just about every photo editing program is non-destructive today, meaning that changes are applied in a way that they can be removed to restore the original image if you decide what you did wasn't successful or if you just want to try a different approach. It's not uncommon for photographers to create a monochrome version of a full-color image.

Exposure X6 is capable of two types of edits: The macro tools adjust exposure, shadows, highlights, white and black points, color balance, and a lot more. Applying looks using LUTs is accomplished with overlays that are applied above the original image. You'll find a lot of presets that give Exposure its ability to create so many different approaches for each image.

My preference is to use Exposure as a plug-in with Lightroom Classic. There are several reasons for this. First, Lightroom Classic is solidly embedded in my workflow. Lightroom also seems to do a better job when processing raw files. And using Exposure as a plug-in returns the edited TIFF image to Lightroom where it can be cataloged with more than twenty years worth of digital images.

 Exposure continues to be the best photo application for creating distinctive film looks.

Exposure has always been one of the best applications for applying artistic effects to photographs, and version X6 builds on that legacy. New users will pay $130 for the application, and users of earlier versions can upgrade for $90. A bundle that includes Snap Art and Blow Up is priced at $150 for new users and $100 for those who upgrade. There's a 30-day free trial to help you decide whether Exposure X6 is the right application for you.
Additional details are available on the Exposure website.
The cat rating scale ranges from 0 cats (worst) to 5 cats (best).

Short Circuits

The Easy Way to Keep (Some) Applications Up to Date

Software developers increasingly add code to their applications so that they will search for and, if the user prefers, install updates. But there are still many applications that need to be updated manually.

A few weeks ago, I found out that a program I use for some backup tasks had a new version. GoodSync was still offering frequent updates to version 10 even though version 11 had been released. Automatic updates are becoming common: Microsoft updates Windows and, at the user's discretion, the various Office apps. UltraEdit Studio, a text editor, notifies me when updates are available. Adobe's Creative Cloud announces updates, depends on the user to approve the installation, and optionally removes old versions.

Most Linux distros make updates almost automatic. The MacOS, IOS, and IPadOS all do a good job of letting users know when updates can be installed. Not all applications manage updates, though, and when they do the updates can sometimes be annoying. Open an application and you may be told that an update is available. Most then offer a three-part choice: Skip this version, install now, or remind later. But wouldn't it be nice if some application would monitor your applications and offer to install the updates when you're not using the program? Such an application exists, and it's called Ninite.

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It doesn't manage updates for all applications, and if you want it to monitor your applications in real time, you'll need to pay for the pro version. The free version keeps track of more than 100 applications, and all you need to do is remember to run it occasionally. Besides keeping systems up to date, Ninite offers the additional advantage of automatically eliminating the adware, spyware, and malware that is packaged with some applications.

The Ninite website shows the applications that it can monitor. Users select those that they want to install or update, and Ninite generates an executable file that downloads and installs any new applications and checks existing applications for updated versions. After running Ninite the first time, checking for updates simple: Just run the executable file every now and then.

It doesn't get much easier than that, but it does get easier than that if you're willing to spend $12 per year.

A Ninite Pro account includes an application that starts with Windows and monitors your preferred applications. A Ninite icon in the (1) Notification area is green most of the time. When it turns red, Ninite is telling you that updates are available for some of your applications. You can (2) install the updates immediately or wait for a more convenient time.

The Pro version also offers a web interface that can be used to add or remove applications, check the status of installed applications, and even manually update or remove applications. If you're a single user with a single computer, this isn't a big deal, but the Pro version is primarily intended to make life easier for system administrators. Instead of updating applications on every single computer, the admin installs an agent application on each of the organization's computers. The agent application can be used to update hundreds or even thousands of computers at a time. Managing 50 computers costs $35 per month (70 cents each per month) and large operations with 20,000 computers will pay just 26 cents per month per computer. The agent runs on Windows 7, 8, and 10, as well as the equivalent server versions.

The same options are available if you have just a single computer that's being monitored. When the agent finds new versions of installed applications, or when the administrator starts an update from the online control panel, the new versions are downloaded and installed without any of the "add ons" that you don't want.

Administrators can manually control apps in the Pro interface, where (1) each enrolled computer is listed. The display shows (2) outdated software in red and current versions in black. The administrator can select an application on several computers and then (3) update, install, reinstall, or uninstall it.

Admins can also set up auto-update policies to apply updates as soon as they're available. If some computers require a particular version of an application, it's possible to lock that version so it won't be updated.

When users control their own updates, Ninite clearly explains what its doing during the update process. Some applications may be skipped because the version on the computer is already up to date, because the program is in use, or (if the computer is running a beta version of an application) because the installed version is newer than the version that the developers offer for updates.

To give Ninite a try, start with the free version and then upgrade to the pro version if you want to make an easy process even easier. You'll find details on the Ninite website.

Is Evernote Better than OneNote?

Occasionally I see articles about Evernote and how wonderful it is. In fact, I've tried three times to make Evernote my friend and have failed an equal number of times. Microsoft's OneNote has better formatting, I find it easier to use, and it's available for Windows, MacOS, Android, IPadOS, and IOS devices. Sorry, it's not an option for Linux users unless you install WINE.

A new version of Evernote claims to have better formatting and a new multi-function button for audio attachments and photos. But the thing is that OneNote already has all these features and has had them for a long time. It's free on all platforms.

Microsoft has a relatively new OneNote app that still doesn't give me the features I want, but the older Desktop application is still available. When I add, update, or delete a note on one device, the changes are reflected across all of the devices where I've installed OneNote.

OneNote isn't perfect. Far from it. But it's consistent and so far it has never left a year's worth of TechByter program notes as a steaming pile of broken bits the way Evernote has. If you're an Evernote user and you love the way it works, don't change anything. But if you're an Evernote user who has suffered lost or mangled text, taking a look at OneNote might be a good idea.

And if you're looking for an application that can be used to store snippets of text, links to articles, photos, and nearly any other kind of information, OneNote is worth looking at. The search feature is exceptional, too. I have four primary notebooks: TechByter, Client, Hardware and Software, and Personal. Each notebook has many folders and most folders have many topic pages.

OneNote allows me to search on a page or to search globally and this is helpful because sometimes my filing system isn't perfect. Maybe I've filed information in Software and Hardware, but I thought that I filed it in TechByter. Global search looks everywhere and does it quickly.

Check it out: Use the Google or Apple stores for portable devices. For MacOS and Windows computers, see the Microsoft website.

Spare Parts

Beware that "Free" Trial

Security software firm Avast is warning about malicious mobile applications in the Google Play Store that target gamers, particularly fans of the popular Minecraft video game. You'll be offered a free trial, but when the trial ends you might find yourself on the hook for more than $100 per month.

These so-called "fleeceware" applications offer new skins, colorful wallpapers, or modifications for the game, but charge huge fees following the trial period. Avast has reported seven of these apps to Google, but some of them are still active.

Fleeceware offers users an attractive service, usually for a short free trial period of three days. After that, the application will automatically begin charging excessive costs, up to $30 per week. Fraudsters expect the user to forget about the installed application and its short trial, or fail to notice the real subscription cost. The reviews usually have many 1 or 5 star reviews but nothing in the middle, with a low star rating overall.

"Scams of this nature take advantage of those who don't always read the fine print details of every app they download. In this case, young children are particularly at risk because they may think they are innocently downloading a Minecraft accessory, but not understand or may not pay attention to the details of the service to which they are subscribing," noted Ondrej David, malware analysis team lead at Avast. "We urge our customers to remain vigilant when downloading any app from unknown developers and to always carefully research user reviews and billing agreements before subscribing."

If you have installed an app that you suspect may be fleeceware, it is not enough to uninstall the app; you must also cancel the subscription directly in the Play Store (Play Store > Menu in the upper left corner > Subscription).

Ebooks Are for More than Pleasure Reading

Even though most libraries are once again available to lend books, ebooks are increasingly the choice people make, and OverDrive (the company that provides ebook services for many libraries) says that they're important in schools, too.

OverDrive Education says a survey of school administrators shows that ebooks have become essential for learning during the 2020-2021 school year. Because of remote and hybrid learning during COVID-19, 80% of administrators state that ebooks are valuable in the ability to offer remote learning. Survey respondents included administrators and teachers across the United States.

The survey also explored how educators are using ebooks in their schools. Highlights include:

59% of teachers say they use ebooks in their classroom to support curriculum, including digital textbooks as well as electronic versions of popular fiction and nonfiction books

40% of administrators say their district has ebooks as a school library resource

33% of administrators say ebooks are a great resource for those who struggle with reading

Overdrive Education offers a specialized reader, Sora, for use by students. https://www.overdrive.com/apps/sora

Twenty Years Ago: Elllliminate Speling Erors Four Ever (Yez, thes haedline haz mistreaks.)

These days, just about every application that runs on any kind of computer has the ability to check your spelling. That wasn't the case in 2000 when I wrote about Spell Catcher Plus for Windows from Casady & Greene, a company that wrote software for Mac computers.

It was versatile. I wrote "If you use a program that already has a spelling checker, Spell Catcher Plus can step aside or it can run in conjunction with Word 2000 or any other program with a spelling checker."

I suggested that "you might turn off individual programs' spelling checkers. If you do, you'll have a consistent spelling analyzer — one that works the same for every program you use, one that has the same exceptions dictionary." Casady & Greene was unable to transition from the old Mac OS operating system to the Unix-based Mac OSX, and the company ceased to exist in 2003.

PS ... It's Holiday Time

TechByter takes two weeks off each year, around Thanksgiving and around the end of the year. Next week is Thanksgiving week in the US. Canadians did it a month ago, and most of the rest of the world wonders why we chow down on what Benjamin Franklin is said to have wanted to be the national bird. In fact, this is a myth. No matter. I'll be back on 4 December with a new program.