Around two weeks ago I posted about getting the Surface Pro 4, and my first impressions of it, and today I will go more into it, what I like and don’t like about the tablet.

Hardware

Fist I have to note, that I had the Surface I got replaced. The fist one I received, had a small problem. The left side of the screen was not glued on properly, so the glass moved about 1mm every-time I touched it. So I had to return that one, and got a new one, without the issue.

I have the middle of the pack configuration. It has the dual core i5 processo, 8gb of ram and 256 memory. I still added another 128gb SDXC memory card for expansion.

So from the hardware side, the Surface Pro 4 is designed very nicely. The bezels are slim, the more angled edges are easy to hold, and the stand is just perfect. After a day or two with it, you start to wonder why not all tablets have a stand :)

The power cable, the keyboard and the pen all attach magnetically. This is very nice, especially for the keyboard, as it guides itself mostly in the connection, and so it’s easy to attach even in complete dark. Regrettably you can attach the pen only to the left or the right side (only left when power cable is connected), and it would be so nice if it could be also attached on the top. Its in the way if you hold the tablet in your hands and want the pen to be attached.

The screen with the very high resolution (2736×1824) is bright and vibrant. I often found the suggested brightness to be too much, and had to tone it down (you are offered: darkest, dark, suggested, bright, brighter and I often use the dark setting). The both tablets I had had a slight light bleed in the center of the bottom edge, with the second one being better. In both cases, the only time I seen the bleed was by the Surface logo by startup. In regular use, it’s invisible.

The front stereo speakers are wonderful. They are font facing, and really loud. I wish a bit that they were on the bottom edge except of the top edge, as when I hold the tablet, I sometime cover them with my thumbs. Still, I never managed to block the sound that way.

 
For me is hard to judge the pen. Even that I own a Wacom tablet, I use it very rarely, and not that much in photo editing. Still, the surface pen is nicely weighted, feels like a real pen, and I have not seen any lag (probably if I did a slow motion video of writing, there would be some visible, but thats just crazy), until I tried some huge brushes. But since I see the same when using mouse on my desktop PC, I don’t think thats really a pen issue. I ran into an issue, where the pen would stop working, while still being connected with bluetooth, but taking out the pen’s battery and putting it back in solved that immediately.

The Surface has a fan inside, which for me is on very rarely. Recently I only heard it twice. Once after an hour of drawing in Photoshop (but it turned off after few minutes) and once during Windows update. Overall the surface heats up very little. 2-3 hours of full HD streaming, and you feel almost no heat on the back.

There are two cameras on it, and I can’t care less about them. I could see them useful for Skype and thats about it. Take it how it is, if you need a photo, you will take it with your camera or you phone. Both are better. (for comparison, the camera on the Nexus tablet I had the last two years, was used once, after which I deleted the photo, and took out my phone to take a new one :))

When used as a tablet (2-3 apps + browser + streamed video) I was getting through 30-50% of battery during 3 hours of use. You of course would not get this much from it when doing processor heavy tasks, but while only drawing in Photoshop, the times were very comparable.

Software

Regrettably, the Surface Pro 4 is delivered with an older version of Windows, firmware and drivers. So you can expect blue screens, crashes and errors until you update everything. I had them all, on both devices. But right away, there was a new version of everything, and all problems I had went away.

The most persistent one was the crashing of the Intel video drivers, where the screen will became unresponsive for few seconds and than you would get a message that the driver has restarted. For me this was solved with the latest driver update few days ago and I haven’t had it since.

Overall, if I look at the stability after all the updates, it is really stable. There are few apps here and there that like to crash randomly (note that I said apps, normal programs seem to work without a problem), but I presume thats a problem on the app side, where they not yet have been properly updated for windows 10.

Windows Hello is just wonderful. It logs me in within seconds, just by looking at the tablet. I do need that also for my main desktop now :). The start menu (or start screen in tablet mode) is very useful, where with the help of an app like Pin more, you can pin just anything, from programs, games, websites, folder to files.

It also so great to not have to limit myself to second grade mobile applications, and just being able to install anything I want. A full desktop browser is so much better than a mobile ones (and web-pages don’t try to push their mobile apps on you on every occasion). One has so much freedom again, what to install, what to use, how to use it.

 
But there are some oddities, which one has to get used to. The most are from the change of how apps are made between windows 8 and windows 10. For instance the swipe from he top, which should open the context menus, has a second application in Windows 10, where it shows the title bar. So if you do it, it can happen that you get the title bar, over the context menu. Of course, newer apps that have been updated already, don’t have these problems anymore.

Overall, I do like using Windows 10 as a tablet on the Surface. It take a while to get used to, but I already prefer it to Android or iOS. Just the ability to swipe from left to get to all opened programs, and the ability to split the screen easily, is so much better than anything they provide. Btw. I moved the task bar to the left side of the screen. Like this I have the start and back buttons right next to my thumb when holding the tablet in landscape :)

Performance

I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of this little tablet. It starts programs on par or sometimes even faster than my main desktop (I think it’s due to faster SSD in the Surface than I use). The program switching is quick, and it’s the same with apps and legacy programs.

But let’s look more into the programs I use the most. Photoshop, Lightroom and Photoengine. In all I tried photos from the Sony A7r, so 36Mpix photos. And to show you how it worked out, here is a short video, where I do random edits in all of them.

Two notes to this video. The fan came on when I started exporting from Lightroom and turned off about a minute after I closed all the programs (I put music in the video, as I did no commentary, and one could not hear the fan in the recording). Secondly, this was all on battery power.

Music: http://www.bensound.com

As you can see Lightroom runs very well. It loads photos fast, and the edits are shown almost immediately. There is a little choppiness when scrolling in the library, but I noticed the same on my i7, 16gb ram desktop.

Btw. Lightroom also has a touch mode, which I haven’t even bothered with. It’s horrible. It removes all the reasons why I use Lightroom, hiding all the sliders into separate menus. It’s just horrible.

Photoengine runs perfectly. I don’t know how they do it, but it runs great on everything. It’s fast, responsive, you see the result immediately.

Photoshop can get a bit slower on the Surface. In the video I loaded 4, 36mpix 16bitt tiff files. Thats actually quite a lot. But as you can see, it still is usable, and the filters are calculated in a reasonable time.

As you can see, the tablet was still nicely responsive, with the programs closing and opening rather quickly.

Overall

Overall I’m quite impressed. The Surface pro 4 is a really nice tablet, and a fairy good laptop. And that was what I was searching for, a tablet, that I can use as a laptop if I need to. If you try one, you may find that you have to overcome few problems, and get used to few new things, but I believe it’s worth it. I will do another post about the surface, in a month or two, with an update how it working out long term.

And as a little bonus, here is my current desktop setup, with the surface, and my main PC :)

For those curious, the monitor is the LG 34UM95, the keyboard is a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, the mouse is a Sculpt Ergonomic Mouse also by Microsoft. There is a back light on the monitor, where I can choose the color I want, and the figure in the middle is the Smart Doll by Danny Choo :)

I decided to extend my black Friday discount on my Master Exposure Blending tutorial, to be active for the whole of December. So from now, until the 1st January, you can get my video tutorials for 29USD instead the normal 49USD. Just use the code “BF2015” at checkout.

To get all the info, and sample videos on the series, please check the Master exposure blending page.

and here you can see the introduction video, to see what it’s about

And again a year passed, and again we got to the Black friday deals. As usually, this is one of the best times you can buy software and tutorials on the web, so same as last year, I will list here the ones I use or I find interesting, with all the discount codes and links where to buy them. And if you would like to know more what software I personally use, you can check out this post, where I show each program I use.

HDRshooter sale

Of course I will start with my own sale :) For the next week you can get my Master exposure blending tutorial videos with a 40% discount. Just use the code “BF2015” on checkout.

For more info, check the Master exposure blending page here.

Trey Ratcliff videos

From the 26th to the 30th, you will get 30% off from most of Treys tutorial videos, so head over to the StuckInCustoms store to check them out.

Btw. also the new HDR software the Aurora Pro is also available from Trey and Macphun. No discount there, but if you buy it now, you get a free copy of the Macphun plugin Noiseless.

Infocusdeal

At Infocusdeals you can get a nice video tutorial collection all about landscape photography from many talented photographers (Colby Brown, Ian Plant, Sean Bagshaw and more). You can check out the content and buy them (for 49usd) at the Infocusdeals website.

500px subscription

500px is currently running a 30% off promotion for the black friday, for their Plus and Awesome accounts. No promo code needed. Discount applied at checkout. More at 500px.com.

Smugmug Subscription

Same as last year, Smugmug is again offering a 40% off discount for new subscribers. So if you need a good portfolio site, I suggest you check it out. More info on the discount, on the smugmug blog here.

Topaz Collection

The Topaz Collection from Topaz Labs, which now with the new Topaz Texture Effects includes 17 different products, is normally sold for 499.99 USD, but from the 25th to the 30th you can pick up the whole collection for just 249.99 USD, that’s 50% off. To do so, you have to use the code “BLACKFRIDAY2015” at checkout. You can find the whole collection at the Topaz Store.

Imagenomic plugins

I’ve been using their Noiseware plugin for years now, and so can you, and much cheaper today :) Imagenomic is offering a 30% off discount on all their plugins from the 26th to the 30th, with the code “BF2015“. Here you can find Noiseware on Imagenomic site, but allso all the other plugins their provide.

Macphun

Macphun is running a big promotion on their Creative Kit plugins collection, where for 89.99 usd you don’t just get the plugins, but a lot of tutorials, textures and other discounts. You can find it on the Macphun website. The offer is valid from the 21st November to the 1st December.

On1 plugins

On1 is having a sale on most of their software today, ranging from 20% to 50% off. You can head over to their web-page for more info, no code required.

Moo cards

The company Moo, which I mentioned yesterday, is having a cyber monday sale of 30% off on all products on monday the 30th. I think those that used them before can use the discount imediately (they send out a promo email about this :)), all other, on the 30th November. You can check out their website here at Moo.com.

Manga Studio 5 & CLIP STUDIO PAINT PRO

This is not really photography related, but since I just picked up a copy for myself, maybe some of you will also find it interesting :) Manga studio (or Clip Studio Paint pro, as it’s the same software) is a really nice drawing software for your PC or Mac. And right now they are having a 65% off discount, where it costs only 14.99 usd. You can find out more on their official page.

//update

Oloneo Photoengine

One of my favorite HDR softwares has the biggest sale I ever seen from them. A whooping 50% off until the December 28th. Thats 62 euro instead of regular 128 euro (+tax). This software I can only highly recommend. You can find it on their homepage www.oloneo.com, and the discount coupon should be applied for you. If not, it is “CHRISTMAS2015PE“.

That’s all for now, If I find any more interesting ones during the day, I will update the post :)

I wrote about the Moo businesses cards before, but as it was time to reorder again, I thought I mention them and their new product here.

I’ve been using Moo business cards for quite a while now. You can easily create sets, where every single card has a different photo on the back. So one side is always the same, with the other side showcasing your work. It really looks nice, and you can even choose if you want rounded corners or not, and the type of paper. Here are my new updated ones, where I changed the text color, to fit with the blog colors I’m using since this year :)

The new product Moo has introduced recently, are their Business cards +. On first glance, they look exactly the same as the regular cards (but are a bit pricier :)). But there is one difference. All these cards include a NFC chip inside. So if you touch the card to the back of your phone or tablet, that supports NFC, a defined actions will be performed. This can either be opening a website, add a contact, open an app in the store or forward to different social platform.

This is actually not done directly. Moo stores a link to their website in the card, and that link forwards the user to whatever you want. You can anytime go, login into Moo website and change what the NFC chip does.

Here are my Business cards +, but I made one mistake while creating them. And it was not apparent, until a fellow photographer pointed it out. I forgot to add the NFC logo into the cards design, so if I give the card to someone, and don’t tell them about the NFC, they will have no idea that it’s there. One just sometime has to learn on ones own mistakes :) Will be better next time.

To lean more about Moo cards, and their range of products, please visit their page here Moo.com.

As I mentioned yesterday, today I will show you how to remove dust spots in Lightroom and Photoshop. This is more for the beginners among you, as I hope that the more advanced and pro users know this perfectly. And for those lazy to read, I’m including a 5min video at the end, where I show all I described here :)

Lightroom

In Lightroom the process is quite straightforward. You go into the Develop module, choose Spot removal, choose the size, and then just click on the spots. It will choose a second spot, from where to replace the are you clicked on. You can even click on the selection and move it around, to get a better result.

Still, if you have problems seeing the dust spots in the photo, Lightroom has a handy selection, called Visualize Spots (int the bottom left, visible only when Spot removal is selected). Checking this will change the image showing just the edges. You can also move the slider next to it, to change how detailed the effect is, so you can see more or less, so easily identifying the dust spots.

Photoshop

In photoshop you can use either the:
– Spot healing brush tool – select it, choose content aware in the top selection, and just brush over the dust spots
– Healing brush tool – select it, Alt + click on an similar area without a dust spot and than paint over the dust spot (similar to clone stamp tool)
– Patch tool – select it, drag a selection around the dust spot and then drag the selection onto a clean area

These all are in the same group on the tools menu, and mostly provide the same results. But there are instances, where you are better with using some of them. Especially when repairing and areas with patterns, lines or texture, you are better off using the patch tool, and dragging your selection onto a spot with similar look as the brushes usually don’t preserve textures, and you are loosing detail.

Same as in Lightroom, you can make it easier to see the dust spots in your photo. Just add a new curves adjustment layer on top of it, (click on the half white/half black circle button in bottom right under layers and choose curves) and create a very strong curve. To do this, click on the line in the first half and drag up, then click on the line in second half and drag down. You will immediately see the difference. Now just select back the layer with the photo, clean the dust spots and then delete the curves layer, as it’s not needed anymore.

For a little more visual explanation, here is a short video where I’m showing all of this I have described here, and if there are still any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.