Up Close with Eric Holen, Holland Studios
Posted on May 24, 2013
Our own Jonny Davenport, National Sales Engineer, recently had the opportunity to catch up with his good buddy, Portland-based photographer, and founder of Holland Studios, Eric Holen. They had a jovial conversation, as friends do, as they discussed lenses, workflow, and more.
We got together for a beer at one of our many local breweries here in Portland, Oregon, Burnside Brewery. I first met Eric when I was working for Pro Photo Supply and he quickly became one of my favorite clients. He is by far one of the most talented shooters I know in Portland today and is one of the most down to earth guys you'll ever meet. —Jonny
About
Eric Holen is a photographic artist. With over 26 years of experience he is considered among the “best of the best” contemporary photographers throughout the world. Eric has defined a distinctive photo-journalistic style that drew his artistry for commissioned work across the United States, France, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada and Italy and other international locations. He began Holland Studios in 1998, booking his first wedding during the labor of his first child! He now shoots around 60 weddings a year.
Many of Eric’s interviews can be viewed on “Portland Wedding Style” and “AM Northwest” television shows. His amazing images are often featured in the pages of “Portland Bride and Groom”, “Oregon Bride”, “Food & Wine”, “Escape Cook Islands” as well as many other local and international magazines. He has also been a LensBaby guru for many years.
Eric’s style of photography is; allow the client to relax in front of the lens and then let life happen. He loves what he does and feels that he is only as good as his last shot, he believes in simple photography and portraits that last.
Jonny: So you've been a photographer for about as long as I have, well over 20 years, who have been your influences?
Eric: Initially my Dad, he was a hobbyist photographer and I picked up my interest in photography from him. Nowadays, I really like Parker Pfister & Marcus Bell, these guys are inspirations.
Jonny: Yeah, Parker! I remember years ago you telling me I needed to meet him. Well funny thing, this past January I was at the Mystic Seminars and Walter van Dusen introduced me to him just moments before he gave his keynote, and the first words out of my mouth were, "we have a friend in common, Eric Holen… he's been talking you up for years." I was blown away after his keynote, he truly is an amazing photographer. We ended up hanging out that evening talking lots of old school photo and the old film era. You remember film?
Eric: Yeah, we've come along way since film for sure. I shoot with Canon digital cameras these days. The 5DMK3 and a variety of Canon Lenses and Speedlights. I also use LensBaby and have been shooting with them since their beginnings.
Jonny: What is your favorite lens?
Up Close with Jacob Lucas
Posted on May 17, 2013
Jacob Lucas is an Australian photographer now living in Seattle, WA. He primarily photographs landscapes and urban architecture with the occasional rock show thrown in for good measure. An avid storyteller, Jacob discovered his passion for photography in early 2010 and has been actively shooting ever since to share his perspectives and stories with the world through narrative and visual imagery.
Jacob is also a good friend of onOne's. He's graced us with his stunning images and presets he's created in Perfect Effects and Perfect B&W and he shared some of his time with us to answer some questions so we could all get to know him better and learn what inspires him and his photography.
How long have you been a photographer?
I was given a point and shoot camera for my 21st birthday a while ago, but never really did anything with it. There was a spark there, however. After moving to Seattle in 2006, I fell in love with the city and the Pacific Northwest. In early 2010, I bought my first dSLR and started seriously getting involved with photography.
Name your photo gear.
I shoot with a Nikon D800, which I keep in my ThinkTank backpack with a 16-35mm wide-angle lens, a 24-70mm mid-range zoom, and a 70-200mm telephoto zoom lens. Occasionally I'll bring along a fisheye just for fun. I've also recently started teaching myself to shoot film. I picked up an old Nikon F5 off eBay and an 85mm prime to help with all that. It's been a lot of fun!
The full list is on my website.
Which photographer has had the most influence on your photography?
There's no single one photographer here since I shoot so many varied genres of photography. Alan Hess has been an incredible resource for my concert work. I owe a lot to Ray Ketcham and Sabrina Henry, too, for their assistance in helping me find my voice in my photography.
How would you define your style of photography?
My style is in my perspective - everything I shoot and process is in aim of sharing how I see the world. A lot of what I shoot I do so because I think it's awesome, beautiful, or amazing... and I hope my style reflects that.
What has been the coolest person, place, or thing you have ever photographed?
I was lucky enough to photograph the Aurora Borealis in Iceland last March. Hand down, that was the single most incredible thing I'd ever been fortunate enough to see, and photograph.
Which tool do you most use in Perfect Photo Suite 7? Why?
Definitely the masking brush in Perfect Effects. I love how it gives me such fine control over exactly where I want to make adjustments to match my vision for the image. I toggle between the Perfect Brush and not, with a mix of the pressure-sensitive Wacom tablet to get the exact look I need from my work.
What advice would you offer someone looking to get into photography?
Don't focus on gear - focus on learning the basics and getting those skills down cold to a point where it's just like breathing. Every time you bring the camera up to your eye to shoot, think about why, and how you want to take the photograph. Use the basic skills to capture that how and why, and you'll get some amazing photos.
www.facebook.com/jflphotography Facebook
gplus.to/jacoblucas Google+
twitter.com/jflphotography Twitter
The Adobe Creative Cloud: Love it or Leave it
Posted on May 10, 2013
This week, there has been a lot of conversation, confusion and, let’s face it, anger in the photography community over Adobe’s plans to “move Photoshop to the cloud” as part of the rollout of its CC applications (formerly known as the Creative Suite). We wanted to let our customers know our thoughts on Adobe CC and how onOne Software products work with the Adobe CC apps.
What does the Photoshop CC announcement mean for me as an onOne customer?
No matter what your situation, we’ve got you covered. If you’re using any of the Perfect Photo Suite 7 applications today with Photoshop CS4 or higher, they will continue to work seamlessly in your workflow. Also, remember that you can always work with your photos in the Suite by itself, as a stand-alone application.
While Adobe hasn’t released Photoshop CC, we have been working with a pre-release version, and Perfect Photo Suite works fine with it. Perfect Photo Suite 7.5 — a free upgrade for Version 7 users that we announced last month — will be ready in the coming weeks and it will correctly install with Photoshop CC.
I’m a Lightroom user. What about me?
Perfect Photo Suite 7.1 works with the Lightroom 5 Public Beta today, and this should be the case when Adobe releases the final version of Lightroom 5 this summer. If for some reason it is not compatible with the final shipping version of Lightroom 5, we will release a free update at that time.
What is this “renting software” thing all about?
There have been lots of posts all over the Internet about Adobe’s CC plan, and whether it makes sense or not. We think it really comes down to who you are: If you’re a person who uses several Creative Suite apps (now CC) like Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, or Premiere in a production environment to make money, subscribing makes sense.
However, the vast majority of Photoshop users we talk to are neither professionals who earn their living with their photography nor are they using other Creative Suite apps. So, while Adobe has a reasonable $10 per month introductory plan for Photoshop CC (if you have Photoshop CS3 or higher), the fact remains that the moment you stop paying the monthly fee, Photoshop stops working. Meaning, you can only rent the current or future versions of Photoshop, or you switch to another software tool. The idea of renting the software is what has so many people upset; that and the fact that the introductory price will reportedly double to $20 per month after the first year.
You don’t have to go to the cloud, or rent your software. Lightroom will remain a non-subscription product for now, earlier versions of Photoshop will work for a while, and they’ll continue (for a while) to sell Photoshop CS6 as a downloadable product. An Adobe VP this week did say that the company would do its best to make sure that Photoshop CS6 will work with the next major OS updates from Microsoft or Apple.
Do I really need Photoshop?
Photoshop is a professional product with a variety of uses beyond photography. It’s used in Web design, video production, publishing and many other industries. Over the years, Adobe has added just as many features for those types of users as they have for photographers, and one of the messages that we’ve heard loud and clear from Photoshop users is that it has become unwieldy and hard to use.
That’s one of the reasons that Lightroom has become so popular — it’s a product designed for photographers. It doesn’t have all of the features of Photoshop, but it has most of the right ones that photographers need. And at onOne, we’ve worked hard to further our goal of being the perfect companion to Lightroom, with or without Photoshop. We want to fill in those gaps left by Lightroom, so that, if you’re a Lightroom user, you don’t feel you have to have Photoshop to do those things that add the right finishing touches to your photos.
Not only does Perfect Photo Suite 7 currently offer a great effects engine and a layered workflow, we are continuing to add the features that all photographers want — without the cost and technical complexity of Photoshop. For example, a few months ago we enhanced our retouching capabilities with our Retouch brush and Clone Stamp tools. These were two very common features that previously could only be found in Photoshop. The upcoming Version 7.5 update will give you a cool new way to browse effects and files, and will also include improvements to our Perfect Brush. And we’re not going to stop there; it’s not going to surprise anyone that we’re working hard on the next great version of the Suite for later this year. Next week, in fact, we’ll be launching a new onOne Labs page with a look at some of the things we’re working on. Stay tuned for more details.
What is onOne Software’s position on all of this?
onOne’s position has been pretty clear and it’s not going to change: the Perfect Photo Suite will allow you to work where you want to and when you want to, whether that be in Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, or as a stand-alone application. We will never require you to rent your software, and you can rest assured that, when you buy onOne Software products, you own them forever.
We’d love to hear from you about this. We’re a small company, made up of photo enthusiasts just like you, and we want to make sure we’re doing the things you want. Tell us how we can continue to improve the Perfect Photo Suite. Whether Photoshop is part of your photography workflow or not moving forward, we want to make sure that you have the right software tools to make your photography extraordinary.
Thank you for your support.
Rick LePage
VP of Marketing
Perfect Photo Suite 7.1 Is Now Available!
Posted on February 15, 2013
We've just released Perfect Photo Suite 7.1—a new update to our award winning product lineup! We're continually working on new ways to offer better tools that can help make your image editing and post processing easier, faster and more fun. This new version includes brand new Red Eye reduction tools, a new Clone Brush, and major performance improvements.
This update to Suite 7.1 is a free download for all current Perfect Photo Suite 7 owners.
The new Red Eye Tool is available in both Perfect Portrait and Perfect Layers. With a simple click, you can minimize the red eyes that can ruin an otherwise perfect picture. Watch this training video to see how easy it is to fix this all too common problem.
A powerful Clone Brush is also now available. This essential retouching tool allows you to select parts of your image to seamlessly cover unwanted items. You can also use it to replicate parts of your image, which adds to your creative options
Perfect Photo Suite 7.1 also gives you the opportunity to help improve onOne Software's products by sharing anonymous data about how you use the software. No personal information will be collected and you will not be contacted. It's 100% opt-in. A dialog box will open when you install this new version or you can find the option Help Improve onOne Products under the Help menu. To learn more about how you can help improve onOne products, click here.
We're excited to share this updated version with you. Learn more about it and download a free 30-day trial.
Perfect Photo Suite 7.1 is a free update for all current Perfect Photo Suite 7 owners.
Owners may download their update here.
Perfect Photo Suite 7 - Now Available In 3 Versions!
Posted on December 5, 2012
We're really excited to announce that starting today, you can choose from three different versions of Perfect Photo Suite 7, making it easy to match it up with your own workflow needs and budget. The three versions are Perfect Photo Suite 7 Premium Edition, Lightroom & Aperture Edition, and Standard Edition.
The Premium Edition is the version of Perfect Photo Suite 7 that has been available since October 31, 2012. It offers photographers the greatest flexibility and seamless integration of Perfect Photo Suite 7 with their workflow of choice. The Premium Edition provides all of the functionality of the Lightroom & Aperture and Standard Editions—offering direct access to modules from Lightroom, Aperture, and as a standalone. It also works as a plug-in to Photoshop and Elements which allows users to create or refine layer masks, resize CMYK, Grayscale, or LAB color mode images, use a dedicated batch processing module in Perfect Resize, use modules as re-editable Smart Objects, incorporate within Photoshop actions, and get direct access to module presets in a dedicated onOne Panel.
The Lightroom & Aperture Edition of Perfect Photo Suite 7 is designed for the photographer who does not use Photoshop but uses Lightroom or Aperture as the hub of their photo management and editing workflows. It provides powerful image editing tools that do not exist in those products and gives them the ability to extend their image editing power, maximize their creativity, and solve the most common problems in photo editing. With the Perfect Photo Suite 7, users can work with a variety of image format including RAW, JPG, PNG, and TIFF, create and edit multi-layered files, and access any of the Perfect Photo Suite 7 modules directly from Lightroom or Aperture. After adjustments are made, edited images may be saved as a .PSD, .TIF, .PNG, or .JPG right next to the original image in their Lightroom or Aperture library, providing true non-destructive editing. This edition of the Suite also works as a standalone application for quick touch ups and edits.
The Standard Edition allows usage of the entire Perfect Photo Suite 7 as a standalone application. This edition is ideal for those who don't shoot RAW or use Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, or Apple Aperture but still want to enhance, stylize, and retouch their JPG images with a professional touch, and create and edit multi-layered files without Photoshop.
For more information and pricing details, please click here.
