Other Tools And Black Friday Transitions To, What Else, Cyber Week!

 I ran through a lot of ink raving about the new "Restoration" tool in Luminar Neo.. you know, this one:

Mackinac Bridge ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

Still damned impressed with how well it works, especially in concert with the other Luminar Neo tools. Like "Sky Replacement", which is incredibly useful for these old black and whites from the 1990's with their totally blown out skies.

The other tool that has all the "influencers" and "vloggers" wetting their pants is "Light Depth".  I admit, I really didn't get this one. That is, until I tried it for my Facebook profile picture for Veterans Day. In fact, I used both Restoration and  Light Depth, and it's quite impressive. 

It's Demo Time. 

Here's the digitized scan from the original 3.5x3.5 Instamatic print from my tropical vacation in Southeast Asia in 1969...

 

and the result of the restoration: 

Not bad, right? But it's missing something (besides a better sky, I mean). That's where the Light Depth tool comes in, (You'll find it at the top of the Creative Toos on the right column)

And when I got done managing the light with the Light Depth tool, and adding an appropriate sky, and fiddling with other tools like Vignette, and Golden Hour, and Landscape... well, it looked like this:

Marine Patrol, Republic of Vietnam ©HM3 Daniel Gauss, 1969

That's a banger, huh?

Here's another:

Multnomah Falls, Columbia R Gorge ©Daniel Gauss, ~1990

...and one more for good measure: (this one's a recent, digital image from only 4 years ago)

Leasburg Slot Canyon, Las Cruces NM ©Daniel Gauss, Shot On Site

Whet your apetite? Well the Black Friday Sale ends on Monday, but is that the end of the criminally low, low prices for new users, or upgrade passes for existing users? Oh, hell-to-the-NO! Because you know what comes after Black Friday? Do ya? That's right, CyberWeek! It's exactly the same pricing structure as the Black Friday Sale. 50-77% off! You must check it out, and here's how:

If you're an existing user of Luminar Neo, click this link.

If you're a NEW customer, and want Luminar Neo so bad you're crying, click this link. 

Each link will take you to the appropriate options for your situation. Pick the one that floats your boat. Maybe you want the Luminar Neo Ecosystem, which will get you Neo and Mobile (and fun fact, you can move seamlessly between the two! Start an edit on your phone, make it legendary on your desktop!) That's one of the options that will be presented to you.

And, of course, when you've made your selection, and are in the checkout line, remember to add the my coupon code: PHOTODAN to save even more! (10%)

Full disclosure: When you purchase using my links, I receive a small commission, with no extra cost to you, so help a fella out, yeah? I knew you would.

Come back soon, because I want to tell you all about something else that's new this Fall: SPACES!

teaser: https://spaces.skylum.com/en/web-page/894eb264a4d62917

"Luminar Ecosystem"?

What's that all about? Let's find out...

There's a big, new upgrade coming in November 2025, which Skylum are calling the "first phase of the Luminar Ecosystem". Let's keep it simple, shall we? Bullet points👇

• Cross-device Mobile to Desktop editing. Currently you can use Luminar Mobile to edit your phone images, and/or Luminar Neo to edit your camera and phone images, but the two platforms can't communicate with each other. That will change in November... start your edits on the mobile platform on the road, complete them on your desktop when you get home. Details in November.
• Web Galleries. This one excites the hell out of me. Almost the most exciting upgrade in the bunch (but not quite... you'll see). You'll be able to turn your edited images into a curated web gallery with just a few clicks, and you don't have to know crap about web publishing. I will be doing this as soon as I have this update in my grubby little (bigger than T*ump's, though) hands. Again, more info as November draws nearer.
• Restoration.
  Exactly what it sounds like, and if you're like me, you've got thousands of old prints around, from dozens of different decades (including before you were born, of course), that are just fading and crackling away before your very eyes. This is the one I really, really like. Can't wait to check it out.

  

  
  
• AI Assistant. (??!!) In the words of Ryan Hall Y'all, "don't be scared, be prepared".  Not all "AI" is scary. The "assistant" analyzes your photos and recommends optimal edits, streamlining your editing flow. You might think this is only for beginners, or newbies to Luminar, but you can bet I'll use it, because it will make a lot of the tools like Curves, and Color Harmony- tools that I've been reluctant to use because they look daunting- easier to use than ever. 
• Volume. Crank it to 11? This is the mystery upgrade, and I'm as in the dark as all the YouTube influencers touting this upgrade I've watched this morning. Sounds tantalizing, though. What they say:

"Instantly add depth and dimensionality by enhancing light and shadow. A one-click solution to elevate contrast and visual impact — no manual Dodge & Burn needed."

So, you may ask, if this is all happening at the end of November, why, Dan, are you giving us all this information now? Glad you asked, and the answer is simple: There's EARLY BIRD PRICING!  👈That's your link. Hit that mother and go see what the folks at Skylum/Luminar have for you! You won't be disappointed, (and if, for some reason, you are? You got a week or something like that to get your money back. So, try it risk-free). And don't forget my discount code: PHOTODAN. Join me on this exciting photo editing journey!

Bold Print (Not "fine" print): There are a limited number of licenses available for this offer, and the early bird pricing is only available until August 31, 2025. Activate your FOMO now!!

   

Luminar For iPad!

 I don't know why I put an exclamation point after the post title. I don't own an iPad. I don't know anyone who does, but maybe someone reading this out there does. If you do, well, this post is for you! (Geez, another pesky exclamation point.)

Anyway, Skylum just released a brand new mobile app for iPad users, and since they went through all the trouble to produce this nice video introducing Luminar for iPad, I should probably post it here. So I will.

So, that's it. If this seems right up your Apple Alley, click the link above, or this banner ad below to learn more. The price is beyond reasonable.. at least by Apple standards. 👈(joke, no joke)

An Offer For Budding Landscape Photographers...

...and even for those who think they're accomplished. Like me.

Those rascals at Skylum Software have an offer for you, in the form of a comprehensive Countryside Landscape Kit for Luminar Neo, at a 35% discount. (Regular price $39). What's in it? Glad you asked.

• 5 presets/templates with a countryside aesthetic
• 5 of the same presets with added clouds (meh)
• 5 sky replacement images with different clouds and moods
• 5 LUTs (Lookup Tables) with different cinema-type color grading
  
• 5 bokeh and flare-type overlays
• 3 fog overlays
• 1 professional editing guide with instructions and tips for making images your own

Naturally, I received a sample copy to play with so's I can show you what can be done with these tools. The image below was created with a handful of the above features, and many, many of the native editing tools in Luminar Neo. (The original JPG image is at the bottom of the page)

Whitewater Creek at Catwalk, ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

Of course you have to already own a Lifetime version, or an active subscription to Luminar Neo to take advantage of this offer, or for any of the other thousands of creative solutions available in the Luminar Neo Marketplace. 

And if you're not? Well have I got a deal for you! Through Valentine's Day (February 14) you can purchase any Luminar Lifetime of Subscription package for 30% off. Just use this here link.  

And to get the Countryside Landscape Kit at 35% off, use this here link! Yes, the links are different. (Also, you might try the coupon, PHOTODAN, at checkout and you may just get an additional 10% off, but I'm not making any promises about that).

And here's what I started with:

Notice the heavy black shadows in the lower left and upper right. If I recall, the lens hood was cockeyed and I didn't catch it for for several frames. Here was a case where one of the new generative AI tools came in handy: GenErase fixed it right up.

So you ready to buy ya some Luminar Neo or what? C'mon now...

Let's Say I Had This Friend....

...and this friend, knowing I was pretty good at photo editing, asked if I could do a favor for him. See, this friend is roughly the same age as I am, and like me is into photography (but not quite as seriously as I) and way back (let's say in the mid-to-late 1970s) he took a lot of photos of the, um, boudoir genre.

This... friend wondered if I could use Luminar Neo to improve some of his old images. Well, what kind of "friend" could turn down a request like that? 

When I saw what I was going to be working with, I wondered what I what I'd gotten into. The original prints looked like they had been in  ̶m̶y̶  his drawer for the last 45 years. And they were tiny! 3.5 x 5, silk surface paper, with round corners! Remember those?

And check out those colors! Jaundice city! This was not going to be the easiest project I ever took on. But... I had a secret weapon! Oh yeah, Luminar Neo had all the tools I needed to fix the colors, remove the annoying silk texture, and make a much larger image file using UpscaleAI.. from 40KB to 3MB with the click of a button. I had not done this kind of work, ever, and yet Luminar Neo is so intuitive (and quick) that it was easy to figure out what tools would do what. And of course, if I didn't like a result, it's simple to back out, with no effect on my original image file because as I may or may not have harped on many times, Luminar Neo (in fact all the previous versions of Luminar as well) is a totally non-destructive process. No matter how many changes you make to an image, your original file is untouched. Cool huh?

And then, there was Studio Lighting.  I had, in my possession the beta version of the upcoming feature, Studio Lighting, which will show up in the Portrait Tools on the next update around the end of this month. It allows you to re-create  many dramatic lighting lighting effects heretofore only available using actual, you know, studio lighting.  I actually found this fairly daunting, because there were so many controls and I just had to fiddle around with each one to see what they would do (remember "non-destructive process?" Good thing).

In the end I ended up with a simple "stripe" lighting effect, (think sunlight through vertical blinds). Just the right "punch". Added a simple vignette, and called it "done".  I'm pretty happy with the result. Pretty sure you'll agree, the final image is a far cry from where I started.  This is easily the most accurate color I've gotten from faded and color-shifted old prints or slides. Now that I know what's required, I might work on  more of  ̶m̶y̶  his old photos!

Now, after the image, I'll fill you in on all the exciting new updates and extensions coming this autumn from Skylum and Luminar Neo....

Famous Fujifilm Kimono ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

As I mentioned above, Studio Light will be available on August 31, but you can get early bird pricing for all Luminar Neo platforms starting now through August 27th. Here's the deets:

New purchasers have a choice of:

• the brand new Pro Monthly subscription, $14/mo
• Pro 12 Month subscription, $99 instead of $119
• Pro 24 Month subscription, $139 instead of $179 👈 (Best deal, of course)
• New Lifetime purchasers (if you'd rather pick and choose your Extensions) $249 instead of $279 (Trust me, the subscription model is the way to go)

If you're an existing Lifetime user, you might want the 2023/2024 Creative Journey Pass for $39 instead of  $79. You will need this to get the next update with Studio Lighting.

There's so much more to come this Fall, and I'll tell you all about it the very next post! But for now, to take advantage of the early bird prices click on this. And remember, to use the code: AFS-rdFDRy at checkout to save an additional 10%! (PHOTODAN may work as well and you won't have to cut and past, or try to remember that first one)

Here's more samples (by other folks) of Studio Lighting tool...

Posts may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these, I may receive a small commission at no increased cost to you. Thanks.

It's Your Choice

 

White Sands Golden Hour ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

As a photographer, I tend to classify myself as an "opportunistic generalist". What does that mean? Simply that I'll shoot anything! Landscape, wildlife, street, portrait, pet, event, ruins, whatever. There's a hashtag on social media: "ipulledoverforthis". That's me in a nutshell. That doesn't mean I don't have my favorites, landscape photography being probably at the top of the list.

Baker Blue Hour ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

That said, it's uncommon for me to actually plan out a photo shoot. I've done it a few times, possibly the first being the HDR session in downtown Deming, NM that resulted in one of my most commercially successful images (a framed enlargement hangs in a villa in the south of France!), that being the Baker Hotel sign in blue hour. This was planned out weeks in advance. 

But for the most part, I'll just grab the camera and go. Oh, there's a car show in town? I'm on that. Full moon coming up over the mountains in the back yard. I'll shoot that. Look! Look there at that old car in the yard of that abandoned house. Get the shot! 

You getting the picture? 

So anyway, some time back in January, I decided I wanted to shoot the full "Snow" moon rise, and I wanted to use the PhotoPills app to get the right time and location.. and that location was going to be White Sands National Park! In other words, a meticulously planned photo shoot! It happens sometimes.

Photo Bro Dale and I got a late start on February 5, but it didn't matter much... everything we were going for was happening late in the day. The moonrise for me, and a very short time before, the sunset for Dale. I was planning on getting some sunset images myself.

Typically, there wasn't a cloud in the sky when we arrived. We hung around the visitor center for a while, flirting with the ranger on duty, then headed out to stake out our spots. I tried out a couple dune tops, took some basic White Sands landscapes, but I didn't like the way the light was going to act when the sun started to set. I hiked to the hill Dale was set up on about the time the sun began to dip. 

There was still almost an hour before the moon would show itself above the Sacramentos, so I set up my tripod and aimed the camera towards the a notch in the San Andres Mountains where the sun would descend. I decided on portrait mode because it accentuated the layers of dunes between my location and the mountains. Then, well, then I just shot the hell out of it while the sun did its disappearing act.

Being a little unprepared clothing-wise for nighttime in the desert, we decided we couldn't stay where we were to shoot moonrise. We rushed back toward the parking lot to set up there.

But hey, if you looked at the image that leads off this post, you've probably figured out by now that this isn't about the moonrise. It's about the sunset, and what I chose to do with it.  

Back home again the following day, I opened up Luminar Neo on the ol' desktop and commenced to editing. When I got around to the sunset shots, I chose the image at the top of this page. I only needed basic edits.. a little masking to bring out the pinkish tones of the dune ridges, brought up the whites in the develop tool. A very minor vignette to direct the viewer's eye. And that was pretty much it. Or was it?

Revisiting the image a day later, I decided that while it was a nice landscape, it was pretty pedestrian; certainl y not one I would put on a notecard and sell at Readers' Cove (our used book store), or the Arts Center.  But I had a plan...

One of the things I really like about Luminar Neo is that I can create fantasy images, and do it way easier, and more intuitively than with those other guys.  More than a year ago I'd gotten this PNG butterfly layer as a gift from Luminar, for completing a survey or something. I tried it out. I liked it, but I wanted to fill the page more, so I loaded another copy and added it, then flipped it so it wouldn't be an identical duplicate of the first layer. I then lightened up the top third of the layers using the mask tool, so it appears the sun is shining through the wings. I sat back feeling pretty damn satisfied with myself.  When printed on metallic surface paper this should pop! I'll know this week when my latest print order arrives at the Homestead.

White Sands Golden Hour Fantasy ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

I didn't have to do it this way, but I chose to. It was my choice. You might not do this with your images. I know a lot of my friends have no interest in these flights of fantasy, and that's their choice. Just like it's your choice. What would you do if you had these creative tools at your fingertips?

Right now, is the very best time to find out, because Luminar Neo Summer Sale is on till the end of the month! These are some of the lowest prices since way back at Black Friday in November. There's no risk.Try it, and if you don't love it like I do get your bucks back. And I can sweeten the pot, because I've got a special code you can copy and paste at checkout, and get an additional 10% off! 

Here's the code right here: AFS-rdFDRy

Just click the ad below, or any of the other links in the post to hit the info page. It's time you tried it, guys. Prices probably won't be this low again... new features are coming later this year!

Oh! And what of that full "Snow" moon rise that was the whole purpose of this "Photo Bro's Roadtrip"? I got it. And you can see it on my Instagram, when you  go there to follow me. 😎

Fine Print:

Posts may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these, I may receive a small commission at no increased cost to you. Thanks.

Ice, I̶c̶e̶ , Land, Baby

 

Iceland Photo By Matt Hardy

Luminar is again hosting a week long photo expedition to Iceland, a place forever on my bucket list- where it will no doubt die.  But just because I can't afford to take this trip doesn't mean maybe one or two of my followers can't. I know people with the financial means to go, but they're not all that interested in upping their photography game; and I know people who'd kill to spend a week in Iceland with 6 master photographers, but they can't afford to take the trip. Somewhere... somewhere out there is the happy medium: Someone with the bucks, and the desire. This post is for you!

This trip is limited to 36 lucky individuals, and will run from August 24-31.  I'm told there are still a few slots available. You can find all the pertinent details by clicking here 

It's not a lot, but if you decide to take the plunge and sign up for this trip of a lifetime, I can save you $200 off the package price, when you use the code, ICEMANDAN, when you check out.  I envy you!

A Tale Of Two Images

The False Slot - ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

"False Slot"? This is nowhere as big as it looks. A kind of optical illusion, if you will. It's actually a massive boulder immediately north of the Pony Hills Petroglyph site in Luna County, New Mexico. Sometime in the distant geologic past it had broken into two parts. In reality, what looks like a one hundred foot long slot is closer to 20 or 30 feet, and about 12 to 15 feet high, and let's just say way too narrow for a slightly plus-sized septuagenarion like myselft to traverse. So,  kind of an entertaining illusion, right?

I wasn't sure the image above was going to come together. I had taken the two images below, with slightly different exposures, trying to get something that was balanced. I wasn't crazy about either, but I decided I would see what I could do with it back home at the computer. 

 

By now, you know that my editor of choice is Luminar Neo, and I was just itching to get this into the HDR Merge extension. There was a problem, though. These two images were just hand held. I did have my tripod with me, but pure laziness on my part kept me from setting it up.  As a result, when I pulled the two images into the HDR Merge extension, I had to opportunity to try out a function of the tool I hadn't needed in previous images:  Auto alignment.  Turns out it works pretty damn well. As you can see from the third image below which is a composite of the two images at 50% opacity, they weren't lined up very closely at all. Compare it to the finished image at the top of the page, and it put them together nearly perfectly. I say "nearly" because while the viewer will not see any fine details that didn't quite mesh, I can. I can always see the faults.  It's my curse. 😐

  

Have a look at the top of the right sidebar, and you will see an ad for the Mothers Day Sale, which has just a few more hours to run... till 7:00 AM EDT, May 16 to be precise. If you look and the ad's no longer there, you missed out again. 50% off. Or 60% off if you also use the code, PHOTODAN at check out. Later, all.

 

Happy (Belated) New Year!

Immature Bald Eagle  ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site 

This young bird may be experiencing its first new year.  Shot this at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge on Christmas Day, a trip we've been making nearly every Christmas for the last 6 or 7 years. "The Bosque" is one of America's great wildlife refuges, and should not be missed.

You would think, looking at this image, that I was either very close, or I have one of those massive multi-thousand dollar telephoto lenses. Neither is the case. My lens of choice (currently) for wildlife images such as this is the Fujifilm XF 50-140mm f2.8 R LM OIS WR (a mouthful, right), coupled with the Fujifilm 2x teleconverter. The 35mm equivalent of this setup would be 150-450mm. Decently long, but not enough to get in close to this eagle. Here's the original, uncropped and unedited image (about 50-60 yards away):

©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

So... how did I get a nice close (and sharp) image? Well, if you've been coming around here long enough you won't be surprised when I tell you it was in the "digital darkroom" with  Luminar Neo!, and its group of Extensions. (Especially SupersharpAI and UpscaleAI). If you own, or have a subscription to Luminar Neo and you want to try out any of the extensions for free, just click on any of those last 3 affiliate links. To purchase Luminar Neo, click on the first link. And don't forget: if you decide to purchase anything at the Luminar site, use the code: PHOTODAN  for 10% off of your purchase!

I'll be back soon, with more cool content about photography, photo editing, activewear clothing, your feet, and some exciting new medical news. Hang in there.

Feel Free to Augment Your Reality

Dogs,2003,  and a Bridge, 2021 ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

 

The folks at Skylum Software, just released a buttload of new extensions for their Luminar Neo editor. Some practical (I'll get to those in a future post), and some fun and creative. Background Removal AI falls solidly in the latter category. Take the above image for example.  If you've got your readers on and can read the small print you'll see the dogs' picture was taken 19 years ago at a dog camp in Asheville. The bridge was shot last Thanksgiving at the Nature Conservancy's Iron Bridge Conservation Area northwest of Silver City, New Mexico.

This screenshot from the Luminar Neo desktop shows the steps (though not in process order) I took to get from there to here... upper right is the original Nikon D1H raw file from 2003. Bottom right is the background removed, with a single click and a bit of fringe work around the ears, Bottom left converted to a png file with a transparent background, where it is then ready to be inserted into another background. Notice that I needed to flip the dogs so the light direction was consistent. Also a single click. Spent about 10 minutes total. Obviously more can be done, but I wanted to get the news out.

I used a couple of the other new extensions when putting this image together, including NoiselessAI, to remove digital noise in the dog image caused by the small 19 year old Nikon sensor, and UpscaleAI, to increase resolution for the same reason.

If your interest is piqued, hit the links at the top of the post, or the vertical ad on the right sidebar. If you're buying, don't forget to use the discount code: DanGauss to potentially save $10.

Fine print:

Posts may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these, I may receive a small commission at no increased cost to you. Thanks.

Luminar Neo Evolution Continues... Better Than Ever

 Here's the official tease. I'll have more on the new extensions very, very soon. Or hit the ad on the right.

Customizing My Old Images. Because I Can

Cody, Nebraska 2008. ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

Back in 2008, we embarked on one of our longest trips in the Hare-Brained Express, leaving Ann Arbor, where Margaret's brother installed a new radiator in the Bounder, for the west coast and back again. That trip was chronicled extensively on this blog back then, and you can relive the adventure by clicking on "2008" > "August" in the blog history in the right sidebar. But, if you don't want to go through that, here's the graphic overview...  

About a third of the way home, on the northern portion of the loop, we had to hit a small town in the southwest corner of South Dakota to renew our driver licenses, as we were (air quotes) "South Dakota Residents" for purposes of mail delivery, vehicle registrations, voting, etc. When that task was completed we dropped down into Nebraska and stopped for the night in a quaint little town called Cody. The city park there had RV hookups for $5 a night. It also had this view of a beautiful prairie railside grain elevator and water supply. I took lots of pictures. The picture leading off this post has been edited with, you guessed it, Luminar Neo. The original looked like this:

Yeah, a nice tree, but the main subject is the elevator, and the parts of the tree I left frame it perfectly, especially after switching to landscape from portrait. I also dialed up the warmth for a more "golden hour" look.

But, what if we weren't there in August of 2008. What if I wanted you to believe it was, instead, late October of 2008? Using the Landscape and Color tools, and some masking it's easy to bring on an Autumnal look to this image, (can't you just feel the frost in the air?):

Cody, Nebraska 2008 "Fall Edit"  ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

Lastly, maybe we weren't there at all. Maybe we just saw the image in a photography gallery somewhere. An image by the alternate universe Dan Gauss? Multiverse of Madness, indeed! Well, if it's artsy, it's gotta be black and white, no? More Luminar Neo tools, of course.

Cody Nebraska 2008 (Black and White Edit)  ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

Give you some ideas? Why not try it soon.  The Halloween Special Offer expires soon! And remember my Coupon Code: DANGAUSS to save $10 (not sure if it works with promo prices, but it wouldn't hurt to try!)

Posts may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these, I may receive a small commission at no increased cost to you. Thanks.

The Value of An Evolving Editing Program (to me, anyway)

When  Luminar Neo first launched last February, it was a very good editing program, but not a great

editing program. It had a lot of useful tools, but it was also missing tools... tools that had been in previous iterations of Luminar: LuminarAI, Luminar4.  

                                                                                                                                                                Gradually, over the next few months, with free updates, improvements and additional tools were added. But the best was yet to come!

Fulfilling the promise to build a fully functional edit platform, to rival the best of the competition, the Luminar team began to drop the first of the "extensions", those being HDR Merge, and NoiselessAI, both of which you've seen on these pages. November will bring 3 more: UpscaleAI (which I teased in a previous post), AI Background Removal, and Focus Stacking.

(The fact that Skylum/Luminar can keep the doors open, and the updates and improvements coming all year long while working in the war zone of Kyiv, Ukraine is nothing short of miraculous!)

But I digress. How do I, Dan Gauss, find the evolving Luminar Neo so gosh darn valuable? Well, you already know I edit nearly every current image with Neo. But I've got literally thousands of old digital images, going back to my days as a sighthound event photographer beginning in 2003. And even thousands more on negatives going back to the very beginnings of Shot On Site Photography in 1994, and beyond!

With every new extension tool, it becomes possible to make nearly every old image in my compendium to look far better than they ever could have looked with the editing tools back in the day. A case in point:

Race Day Morning.2008 NOTRA Nationals, Boswell OK
©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

This is an image I found yesterday morning while assembling an order for images from this event*. I don't remember taking it, and if I ever saw it back in 2008, I don't remember it. Anyway, I pulled it off the disk and ran it through Luminar NEO. The original wasn't bad, mind you, but it was helped with a few tweaks. I'm looking forward to getting UpscaleAI next month. I'll take this 2MB original JPEG and see what it looks like at 32MB (or bigger?)

So, if you're like me, and have hundreds or thousands of old, small, digital images in need of improvements in color, or exposure, or resolution, you'll want to give Luminar Neo a try. And there's no better time than now to try it (risk free, of course). Special pricing and a bonus gift! Click the ghost in the right hand sidebar, or this link

*Yes, old Shot On Site friends, your old images (from 2003 on) still exist! They're still on my Photoreflect website!, and I still get orders to this day! Not all, mind you, but images from every major lure coursing event, race meet, breed specialty, open field hunt, ASFA II are there.  The regular weekend lure coursing and race meets have been removed, but never fear, I still have them on disk. Just email me: dan@shotonsite.us

And remember: if you do order images from "the olde dayes", they will now be edited in the latest and greatest Luminar software!

Posts may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these, I may receive a small commission at no increased cost to you. Thanks.

It Was the Mother of All Crepuscular Ray Sunsets

Original Fujifilm X-E3 Raw File: f8, 1/800 second, ISO 400. Fujifilm XF 16-80mm f4.0 R OIS WR zoom at 18mm.

Last Saturday, I took a break from the recliner in front of whatever college football game I happened to be watching at the time to grab a snack, or refill my water bottle, whatever. Returning to the living room, I glanced out of the open front door and saw this magnificent photo opportunity.

Now, crepuscular rays are not an uncommon site here in The Land of Enchentment, but this was notably exceptional in that the rays were directed out in all directions, owing to the broken cloud formations, and the elevation of the setting sun.

I grabbed the X-E3 and stationed myself on the front porch for the next half hour or so, snapping picture after picture after picture.

I was hoping to get into the editing later that evening, but life - as it does- got in the way, and I didn't get to it until Monday. The screen grab above is the Fuji RAF raw file I started with when I opened up Luminar Neo and sat, staring at the screen, wondering how I wanted to proceed.

I'd watched a YouTube video a couple days before, by a Luminar ambassador, Jim Nix, edit a very similar image, using some of the seldom used tools in Luminar Neo. That's the direction I decided to go.

While Luminar Neo has a very cool "Sunrays" tool, it was obvious it wouldn't be necessary with this image. But I wanted to really accentuate them, along with the golden hour colors. Recently, I would have run this through the HDR Merge tool, just to see what it would look like, but I decided to forego that step. The tools I did use included the almost obligatory DevelopRAW, NoiselessAI, Structure, Color, Super Contrast, among the usual suspects. The seldom used tools included Toning, and Color Harmony.

The beauty of any of the Luminar platforms is that they are completely non destructive. You can experiment with any number of the tools, jack the sliders up to 100, play with colors, vignettes, details, etc. and in the end if you're not happy you can revert to your original raw file or jpeg and it's completely unchanged, and ready for you to start over. I've been there.

Anyway, without further ado, you're probaby interested in seeing how it ended up after using 12 different tools (some more than once, which is another cool feature of Luminar Neo). Here's the shot: 

"From the Porch", ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

Remember, if you're interested in any of the Luminar products, use the links above, and if you decide to buy, save $10 with my coupon code: DANGAUSS

Till next time.

Posts may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these, I may receive a small commission at no increased cost to you. Thanks.

Money Money Money Money..... Money (hum it with me)

Just a quick addendum to yesterday's post on the new Luminar Neo pricing programs. You can take an additional $10 off, using my personal discount code: DanGauss  if you purchase a 1 year subscription of either Pro or new Explore!  You're welcome.

BONUS POST:

And here's a teaser of an upcoming extension-

I've been looking forward to this one more than any other so far! It will mean new life for so many of my old photos from the days of tiny sensors! More when the release date gets closer, some time in October.

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Br-r-r-r-r-ackets!

Upper Gallinas Campground, Gila National Forest. New Mexico, USA  ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

I rarely go out with the express intention of only shooting bracketed exposures. It's been 10 years, in fact. On this one day road trip up to the Black Range in the Gila, it was my main purpose. I wanted to try out the new HDR Merge extension for Luminar Neo with multiple exposures. In the previous post, I tried out its "single image HDR" capabilities with great success.  This image was made up of 5 images, each 1 stop of exposure apart; an average exposure, and +1, +2, -1, -2.   I used several other Luminar Neo tools to complete the image, including layers, sunrays, and atmosphere.  Gotta say, it looks nothing like an image from the early days of HDR. No "clown vomit" here! 

Skylum have announced several more extension releases before 2022 is over, one of which is already here: NoislessAI, and Upscaling will follow shortly.  If you want to find out more about what's happening at Skylum, click on my affiliate links above, or click here.

Autumn is nice in New Mexico, but...

 ...monsoon brings out the very best in photographic opportunities!

Lightning captured from the front porch. ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about our monsoon:

"The North American monsoon is a complex weather process that brings moisture from the Gulf of California (and to lesser extent the eastern Pacific and Gulf of Mexico) over northwestern Mexico and southwestern US resulting in summer thunderstorms, especially at higher elevations. Monsoon rains account for 35% to 45% of total rainfall in the desert Southwest"

Thunderstorms mean heavy (but scattered) rain, and more importantly, lightning! Nothing is more satisfying than capturing a great lightning image.  For a long time, before the digital era, nothing was more frustrating than trying to capture a great lighting image! One had to stand in the rain with a cable release in hand, and the shutter dial set on "B"... push the plunger for a set amount of time and hope that a lighting strike occurred when the shutter was open. Lather, rinse, repeat.

With the advent of digital imaging, many cameras of the advanced amateur and pro levels came with an intervalometer setting. One could specify a certain number of exposures, at a specified interval, and the camera would then do the heavy lifting, while the photographer enjoyed a cold beverage in front of the TV. When the storm subsided, the memory card was loaded in the computer, and the hunt for any frames with a lightning strike would begin.  That's how I captured the image below way back in 2011, also from the front porch. To this day, I think this is still the best storm to ever pass over our heads heading West.

Monsoon lightning. ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site 2011

This method had it's obvious drawbacks, of course. The number of shutter actuations vs the number of images of lightning was excessive, considering the lifespan of shutters back then.

The solution was having a device that would only fire the camera when there was actually a lightning bolt! These devices did exist then, but for many of us the price was prohibitive- $500 and up.

Then, in 2016, I began to see ads for a device that didn't cost an arm and a leg and promised I'd be able to capture lightning, and a whole lot more! That device was the Pluto Trigger ! It was only $119 then, and it's still $119 today. I bought one, of course, and have been very pleased with it's capabilities, not only for lightning capture, but so many other functions (but more on that in another post). The image at the top of this story was made possible, in part, with the Pluto Trigger. (Follow the link to learn more).