My friends over at Rancho Deluxe sent me some photos of their property to post on their website. The original photos are not bad. The attempt at a starry sky is just a little underwhelming. Using Skylum Luminar AI Sky Replacement I jazzed up the stars a bit and created a more stunning photo set. I used the same sky on both images for consistency. I also added a little bit of warmth to get the barn wood more saturated. Check out a free trial for yourself and see how you like it.

Since I have replaced my workflow using Nik Plugins with the new Luminar photo editing tool, I have to say personally, after weeks of review, I am loving Luminar. Coming from Photoshop with Nik plugins background and not Lightroom. I feel like, for some photos, you can't really get there color-wise with Nik. Nik is great but Luminar is blowing them out of the water. I am impressed!

Just for fun I was going through some of my old photos, shot in 2009. These photos I just skipped by because they were shot dark and lifeless. I thought I would run some of them through Luminar to see what it could do with them. See for yourself:

I feel like there was a reason for me to take this photo. I just don't point and shoot just to take a photo. I think the dark, lifeless photo is the result of the raw camera file and just lack of light. I'm sure it looked better in person or I wouldn't have taken the shot.

If you are looking for a great alternative to editing your photos why not give Luminar a try, just download the free trial and see if it works for you. That's what I did!

I have paid for and been using Nik plugins for 15 plus years, I can't even remember when I started. I want to say maybe 2002??? I have used Nik plugins in my workflow ever since. I remember when Google bought out Nik and then gave the software to everyone for free 🤬. Now DxO has purchased Nik and wants me to re-purchase what I already bought years ago. I don't think Nik has changed much by the way.

In my journey to completely replace my Adobe Suite I found Affinity Photo 1.6 to replace Photoshop. It works great, better than Photoshop, for me, I absolutely love it. Affinity Photo released it's update to 1.7 and the Nik plugins don't work in 1.7 which is a bummer. Knowing this before I updated I also found a replacement for Nik.

For around the same price as Nik pluggins I decided to purchase Luminar by Skylum. It's an Adobe Lightroom Alternative. But for me, it's basically 90% Nik software, but better. You are getting Lightroom and Nik all in one. But wait, it gets better. Tooling around inside Luminar under plugins I found my Nik Plugins. THEY WORK inside Luminar. (I am using the latest version of Luminar)

This just might be best of both worlds! If you want to use your older Google Nik Collection Plugins with Adobe Alternatives, check out Luminar by Skylum and see if it will work for your workflow as it does for me.

I upgraded my copy of Affinity Photo today. I had to test out the new features. I was excited to see free stock offerings from 3 different companies built right into Affinity Photo. I noticed the "refine selection" tool is much faster and precise. I was able to find a killer lion photo on the free stock images and decided I would create a cool baseball poster. Upgrading is worth it, it's free if you already purchased 1.6. My AP 1.6 was great but 1.7 is bad ass!

A couple weeks ago I was driving down the road, stopped at a four way, and took off when it was my turn to go. My phone was in my front pocket and as soon as I hit the gas it flew out with such force that it broke my screen. What does this have to do with editing photos? Well, with my old phone, I use to have great editing tools that just came with the phone. These editing tools were the same Nik plugins I use in Photoshop. So when I had to get a new phone, those same editing tools were gone. So, I searched out new editing tools in Google playbook. What I found was "snapseed". Google had made an app with those same editing features plus a lot more. I am back in business.

This is such a great tool for when you're on the go, or if you don't have a need for Photoshop. I can even wirelessly transfer my photos from my Sony camera to my phone for editing. This photo example below was shot with a cell phone camera and edited with "snapseed" to create a kind of old African safari postcard. You can download this great app for free. So get it, edit, and have fun with your photos.

Another great product to add to your base camp. A pump up solar shower that you can take camping. You can check it out here http://duckworksbbs.com

Free Online Photo Editor for Your GoPro images: http://www.photoshop.com/tools

How To: The GoPro Hero Video and Photos are shot with a flat profile. This is to capture the most dynamic range in the scene. To get your GoPro photos to look even better you need to edit them. Adobe photoshop has a great free resource that allows anyone to upload and edit their photos online. Have fun with it and play around! Brett

I shot this photo with my GoPro Hero B.E. Handheld @ 1pm - middle of the day.

This is a real world review based on how most people will use this camera. I used this camera in Manual Mode, Scene Mode, Full Auto, Program Mode. I didn't have the manual I just started shooting. The menu system is outrageous. It's basically got photoshop built in. 

A friend at work just bought the Sony RX100 II and was nice enough to let me borrow it for a few days. I will say right off the bat, this is the best point & shoot camera I have ever used. If I put up shots from the Sony RX100 II and a Nikon D700 most people wouldn't be able to tell what camera took which picture, and the prints are amazing as well. 

* On a side note, I was surprised at how long the battery lasted on this camera using the flash all the time. Usually, you take one shot with the flash and your battery indicator reduces by one bar. I think I took 20 something photos with the flash before the battery started going down.

I am going to put the original photo next to a photo edited in photoshop using Nik Photo Plugins to see how well the image holds up to editing. I will put a link to the original file so you can download, edit, and see for yourself.

Let's look at some sample images. All shot JPEG Finest quality. All shot hand held.

"UP" was filmed at the Descanso Gardens in La Canada, California. I filmed 100% on the gopro hero 3 black edition 2.7k 24p cin mode and edited in 1080p24. Hope you like it, enjoy!

More Info Here: http://goo.gl/8hbgK

In this episode of Useful tools for photographers we take a look at the Trekkor fold a privy privacy shelter for use as a portable wardrobe changing room, bathroom, and camping shower. I will be using this item for all of the above. This is most helpful to all the women out there that have to deal with dirty nasty public bathrooms. Hope this review is helpful. 

Shot this during my lunch hour. Set the gopro camera directly on the ground pointing it at the mid day sun. I'm very surprised at how well this camera handles bright mid day sun. Shot at 1080p60 slapped down in a 720p24 timeline.

The first video was so much fun we decided to shoot another one. Love this little camera

http://goo.gl/3yDex
I finally got my GoPro Hero 3 this weekend.

I wanted to shoot and share some handheld test shots and process them in photoshop to see how the photo files took the processing. I also wanted to see how well the metering system worked. I would say its just ok but good enough for what it is point and shoot. I shot with the case on.

So far I am very pleased with my GoPro Hero 3. I have to say it's one of the best pieces of electronics I've ever owned, for what it is. IT'S TRULY AMAZING! I can't wait to get out and shoot more with it so stay tuned!

NOTE: The images in the video are cropped to fit in the 1920x1080 video aspect ratio.

Watch and learn photography. You can now watch Brett's DVD for free on youtube:http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0HKGARO8ZvayDbpxpsgtVgoOKA9MOQct