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Find Photoshop expensive? Consider leasing.
Currently on my computer I have these digital photo editing programs:
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Adobe Photoshop CS6
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Adobe Lightroom 4.1
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Corel PaintShop Pro X4
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Corel Photo-Paint X6
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CorelDRAW! X6
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Word 2010 (don’t underestimate it!)
I have had Photoshop, Photo-Paint, CorelDRAW!, and Word since their initial releases decades ago.
When I went to upgrade Photoshop, I discovered the steep price. I also discovered Lightroom, so rather than the steep price for a Photoshop upgrade, I opted to continue using my very old version of Photoshop and learn Lightroom.
When I went to upgrade my very old versions of Photo-Paint and DRAW!, I discovered PaintShop Pro. The price was very reasonable, so I bought it.
I use all of those programs for various purposes, but my current goal is to see if I can get Photoshop to do everything. If I can, then ultimately I’ll be migrating my skills in all the other programs over to Photoshop.
I think that Photoshop is the most powerful individual programs, but if I combine DRAW! X6 and either Photo-Paint X6 or Paintshop Pro X4, I can do in them anything that Photoshop can do. The question is, “How easily?” or “How much time is involved?”
For example, I use CorelDRAW! X6 to do the Zoey the Cool Cat approval stamp at the end of each post. It takes me about 15 seconds. To do it is Photoshop would take several layers and lots of time, and I haven’t found that Photoshop Actions can really automate everything for me yet.
I use Word 2010 to create quick frames, like the one I use for my wise old grandmother:
That took about 15 seconds in Word 2010.
I use Lightroom 4.1 to give me quick JPGs from RAW files and to do quick adjustments for exposure, highlights, shadows, contrast, and clarity (sharpness). Five sliders takes about 30 seconds. The same tasks in Photoshop takes several minutes due to having to go through Adobe Camera Raw first and then into Photoshop. Minimum of five layers in Photoshop.
I use Photo-Paint to create GIFs. It’s the easiest program I’ve found for that:
PaintShop Pro X4 is very similar to Photoshop, and I’ve found it much easier to use. However, simply because Photoshop is the defacto standard throughout the world, Photoshop is where I’m dedicating my time. When you have a defacto standard, you have a lot of people doing tutorials and creating plugins and such. So Photoshop it is.
One you have created certain effects that you like in any of the programs, you can either save the file as a template and then just replace the picture as needed (that’s what I do in CorelDRAW! and Word) or you can create actions, scripts, or macros in the other programs to automate tasks. As with anything, it takes time to set it up initially but then the ROI on your time is returned each succeeding time you do the same thing.
If you’re considering Photoshop and find the price too steep, consider leasing it, which is what I do. I have a one-year lease with Adobe that costs me $19.99 a month. Considering that the full program is $699, it would take me 35 months of leasing to pay for the program. That’s three years. During those three years, Adobe will come out with two upgrades, costing you $199 each, another $400. You’ll never be able to stay up to date with the latest and the greatest. With a lease, you can.
Twenty dollars a month is less than any of my other individual bills — gas, phone, cable, mortgage, electricity, etc., and something I can easily afford. Coming up with $699 all at one time, and then $199 every 18 months, can often be difficult for the 99%.
If you’re considering a Photoshop lease, when you go to buy the product, in the dropdown box, select “Subscription” instead of “Upgrade” or “Full.”
Once you have any of these programs, if you have a question about how to do something, ask me. If I don’t know how to do it, I’ll find out. It helps me learn, and real-world examples are always much more fun than reading through a book or watching a tutorial.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Panorama of downtown San Diego
I have taken a lot of pictures of downtown San Diego but none of them include all of downtown San Diego. When I use a super wide angle lens, it just looks weird.
Today, my daily 30-minute Corel PaintShop Pro X4 study was how to stitch pictures together to create a panorama. I took the following three pictures and tried to do it.
Downtown San Diego, north end
Downtown San Diego, middle
Downtown San Diego, south end
I made no adjustments to the three pictures because I wanted them to be as close as possible to each other in terms of brightness, contrast, etc.
I followed the steps on pp. 346-352 of Diane Koers’ book, Picture Yourself Learning Corel PaintShop Pro X4, which, by the way, might be the best How-To book I’ve ever read about anything.
In about five minutes, I came up with this:
Panorama of downtown San Diego
I made some brightness and contrast adjustments after stitching. Look very closely and you can see where the three pictures were stitched. However, with the quality that I got here in only five minutes with three not-meant-for-panorama-stitching pictures, oh how my mind is wandering…………………. like a 360° panorama from the same spot where those pictures were taken.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County? I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor with Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re just looking for a home inspector,
I can highly recommend Russel Ray; that’s me!
A rose by any other name is still a rose
My apologies to the literariasts (!) for bastardizing a great Shakespeare quote in Romeo and Juliet (“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet”), but I just discovered that in many software programs you can define black, white, and gray.
I started having a little fun by telling CorelDRAW X6 that a deep dark red was actually black. I took this picture of a giant hibiscus at the San Diego Zoo yesterday:
I clicked on the color definition eyedropper for black and then clicked a dark red. CorelDRAW then reprocessed the image in just a couple of seconds. Then I clicked on “Auto adjust” and got this:
I was trying to analyze just exactly what CorelDRAW did and determined that if red is black, then there is a lot of the picture that is underexposed. Thus, when CorelDRAW went to auto adjust the picture, all those black (red) areas were brighted up a wee bit.
This opens a whole new realm of creating something that is me, kind of like Rubicorno has defined himself. The difference is that I can create my own preset, a preset that no one else in the world has.
At the very least, I’ve found something to do with my 73,000 pictures in my old age. 
If my wise old grandmother were here, she’d say, “Interesting….”
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County? I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor with Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re just looking for a home inspector,
I can highly recommend Russel Ray; that’s me!
A digital double exposure
This post is dedicated to Bob Willis, a real estate agent with Prudential California Realty in Whittier, California. I have known Bob for about three years through a real estate professional networking site. I highly recommend him for anyone needing real estate services in the Whittier, California, area.
Dedications are my way of trying to provide a little extra Google juice for people I have come to know and respect over the years.
A few decades ago I had a Canon A1. I loved that camera even when I goofed and created a double exposure. Sometimes double exposures were pretty neat. Accidentally taking a double exposure with my Canon Rebel XSi or my Canon 550D is virtually impossible. I’ve tried. However….
I’ve been thinking that creating a double exposure with all of these wonderful digital photo editing programs should be relatively easy to do. Well, it’s not relatively easy to do, but ultimately I did succeed.
Using Adobe Photoshop CS5, I was able to take a picture of some train tracks and a picture of a beautiful protea flower and superimpose one on the other to give me this beautiful double exposure:
I have Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Lightroom 4, Corel PaintShop Pro X4, and Corel Photo-Paint X5. As with probably 80% of the population that has any one of those programs, I have never learned how to use layers. This evening I sat down with Photoshop CS5 with the sole purpose of being successful at doing something — anything! — with layers. That’s how I got my double exposure.
Funky architecture at University of California San Diego
This post is dedicated to Andrea Swiedler, a real estate agent with Prudential Connecticut Realty in New Milford, Connecticut. I have known Andrea for a few years through a real estate professional networking site. I highly recommend her for anyone needing real estate services in the New Milford, Connecticut, area.
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
Out of the five or six hundred college and university campuses that I’ve been to, University of California San Diego (UCSD) ranks as #1 in terms of interesting architecture. I think most college campuses try to maintain a consistent architectural look to their campuses. Not UCSD!
Here are a few of the interesting buildings that I got pictures of yesterday before I ran out of daylight:
Computer Science & Engineering Building at University of California San Diego
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
University of California San Diego
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
University of California San Diego
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
International House at the University of California San Diego
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
House on the School of Engineering building at the University of California San Diego
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
Geisel Library through the eucalyptus grove at the University of California San Diego
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray PhotosAll pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
Recent posts related to the University of California San Diego:
» The Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego
» The Sun God of the University of California San Diego
» A challenge to all my real estate friends: List this house!
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
All pictures taken by Russel Ray using a Canon 550D camera and a Canon 55-250mm lens. Picture frames from Corel PaintShop Pro X4.
A challenge to all my real estate friends: List this house!
This post is dedicated to Ron and Alexandra Seigel, luxury real estate marketing consultants and owners of Napa Consultants in Santa Barbara, California. I have known Ron and Alexandra for a few years through a real estate professional networking site. I highly recommend them for anyone needing luxury real estate marketing services anywhere in the world, not just in Santa Barbara or California.
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
When I did a post on March 2 about Dr. Seuss and the Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), I was reminded that there are lots of picture-taking opportunities on the UCSD campus. It ranks probably as the quirkiest campus I’ve ever visited, and I’ve been to five or six hundred college and university campuses, maybe more.
An addition to campus late last year was a house. It seems to be a standard house, until you look at where it’s located. Is this an example of the old real estate adage: “Location, location, location.”
I want all my real estate friends to come up with their best listing presentation for this fine piece of Southern California real estate:
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
That house sits on top of the Irwin & Joan Jacobs School of Engineering building, which I think is six stories tall. Irwin Jacobs is a founder and former chairman of Qualcomm, the company that makes much of the stuff that lets your mobile phone do what it does….. blame him.
I went over to the Geisel Library, sixth floor, to get one more picture:
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
Related posts:
» The Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego
» The Sun God of the University of California San Diego
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
All pictures taken by Russel Ray using a Canon 550D camera and a Canon 55-250mm lens. Picture frames from Corel PaintShop Pro X4.
The Sun God of the University of California San Diego
This post is dedicated to Robert Gilbert, a real estate agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate in Katy, Texas. I have known Robert for a few years through a real estate professional networking site. I highly recommend Robert for anyone needing real estate services in Katy, Texas, just west of Houston.
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
When I did a post on March 2 about Dr. Seuss and the Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), I was reminded that there are lots of picture-taking opportunities on the UCSD campus. Off I went yesterday, and my next few posts will be of some of them.
UCSD is a rather young university, having been founded in 1958. In the ensuing 50+ years it has risen to be a major public university, particularly strong in the sciences, particularly engineering and the health sciences, and annually ranking in the Top 10 of research universities ranked by research funds that the University brings in from outside sources.
Its 2,141-acre campus was built in the midst of a eucalyptus grove overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Blacks Beach, a world-renowned Naturist beach. Unfortunately (in my view), much of the eucalyptus grove has been destroyed over the years in the name of progress, i.e., constructing more buildings on campus to meet the needs of a population comprising 1,205 faculty members, including six Nobel Laureates, and 29,000+ students.
There are many unique buildings on campus, as well as many works of public art, of which the best known is the Sun God:
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
Sun God, by Niki de Sant Phalle of Paris, France, was the first sculpture commissioned for the campus by the Stuart Collection. It was installed on the campus on January 27, 1983. The sculpture itself is 14 feet tall, constructed of fiberglass, and sits on top of a concrete arched base that is 15 feet tall. No public monies were spent on the sculpture; it was funded entirely by the Stuart Foundation of San Francisco.
According to then-Stuart Collection Director Mary Beebe, “[Sun God] appears to have just landed there out of some fantasy world. It’s a friendly and embracing bird, with mythological and primordial overtones. ‘Sun God’ is very colorful, exuberant and certainly joyous, but with a slightly awesome edge.”
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
Related posts:
» The Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego
All pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos
All pictures taken by Russel Ray using a Canon 550D camera and a Canon 55-250mm lens. Picture frames from Corel PaintShop Pro X4.
Who am I?
I’ve been a Jack-of-all-Trades all of my life. It’s a benefit — I can do things myself versus hiring someone to do them. It’s also a burden — everyone wants an expert, not a generalist.
My photography is also Jack-of-all-Trades — I don’t have a style to indicate who I am, what I’m about. For example, look at the work of Davide Capponi, posting under the nom de plume rubicorno. His work is beautiful…. unusual…. distinctive. I would recognize it anywhere.
Davide lives in Italy and does his beautiful work using an iPhone, iPhone apps, and photo editing software. He has been posting to his blog since December 2011 although he has “always been in love with photography.” He has found in three months with an iPhone what I have not found in 45 years with professional grade cameras…. a distinctiveness.
Millions of people are out there with their smart phones, point & shoots, and DSLR’s. How can I be distinct and different, like Davide?
In trying to find a photographic identity, I’ve been exploring digital photo editing software programs. Free — Picnik, Picasso, and Irfanview. Expensive — Adobe Lightroom and Corel Paintshop Pro X4. The Queen of them all (really expensive) — Adobe Photoshop CS5.1.
It’s fun exploring those programs, and I’ve done some things that I like, such as this picture of Zoey the Cool Cat, who’s been with me for 4½ years:
I’m not a fan of black-and-white photography — Ansel Adams notwithstanding — but I like that. The sad thing is that I have no idea what I did, how I got there. I was just exploring in one of the photo editing programs, liked it, saved it, and continued on….
I used that picture because I was trying to find something to do with the original, which I disliked:
The big, blank wall and the glaring cat eyes just made it a bad picture. I dislike deleting pictures, though, believing that I could do something to it to save them. I think I succeeded.
Will I become the black & white cat photographer? Probably not. Therein, I think, comes back my Jack-of-all-Trades burden to haunt me. I like too many things that these photo editing programs do and just can’t make up my mind who I want to be…. or even who I am after 45 years of photography, even with over 70,000 photographs!
Maybe you, my dear reader, can help. As I continue to explore, leave a comment letting me know what you like and don’t like, and why. That might be the clue that I’m looking for!
I leave you with two pictures to brighten your day. First, this beautiful bird of paradise flower:
I have hundreds of pictures of that flower. That’s my best. It’s still just a picture of a bird of paradise flower, though….
I played around with it in Adobe Photoshop CS5.1. In just 15 seconds I got something a little artsy:
Happy day and happy blogging, my friends!
Friday Flower Fiesta — #3 (February 3, 2012)
Today’s Friday Flower Fiesta is dedicated to Sharon Lord of Tempe, Arizona, who owns Argent Décor. She provides home staging, vacation home furnishing, and décor ideas, all of it affordable.
I have known Sharon as a virtual friend for several years and believe that if you need any advice on staging, furnishing, and décor, Sharon is your go-to woman. Sharon, this Friday Flower Fiesta is for you!
Today’s Friday Flower Fiesta pictures were taken this past week at the San Diego Zoo, which also is an internationally recognized botanical garden as well as a world-class zoo.
Picture 1 — Unknown flowers
Picture 2 — Unknown flowers
Picture 3 — Protea
Picture 4 — Iris
Picture 5 — Giant hibiscus
Picture 6 — Giant hibiscus with guest
If you’re having a cloudy day,
remember the power of flowers.
Sea lion posing for the camera
There are two places to see seals and sea lions in San Diego, one in La Jolla and one at the north end of San Diego Bay near the submarine base. La Jolla is easier and less expensive to get to, but the ones near the submarine base are usually much more active. Unfortunately, in order to get to the ones near the submarine base, you have to either have a boat, rent a boat, or go on some sort of cruise.
Here’s an alpha male sea lion that posed for me recently when I went on a whale watching cruise:
Seals and sea lions are very similar in appearance, but there is one sure way you can tell the difference: sea lions have external ear flaps; seals don’t.
Pictures taken by Russel Ray using a Canon 550D.
Post-processing done in Corel PaintShop Pro X4.
Find other posts in my Picture of the Moment series by clicking on the logo at the upper right.
