As every photographer, I use many memory cards. And I need to relay on them, so they don’t loose any of the files. File corruption is not something you want to encounter after a photo-shoot.

So in my opinion a good memory card, is the one you can’t say nothing about. It should just work, without you having to think about it. I’ve been using Kingston cards for a few years now (some of my cards are few years old). The thing I can say about them, is that they work. I never had any problems with them.

I don’t even use the fastest cards. I have no need for that. As a landscape photographer, I almost never do a quick series of shot in a row. They are also quite cheaper than the fastest ones on market and so I can have more of them. Most of my cards are also of the slower type, the 266x, the only one I have of 600x I bought for when I shoot at events, but I never noticed any difference either. Really I don’t care what the transfer rate is. The buffer of the camera can handle a 9 bracket exposure, and until you set for another one, it safely saved to the card.

Overall I’m very satisfied with my Kingston CF cards. All of them have been formatted hundreds of times, and also filled to maximum. And with the price being 30-50% of a comparable Sandisk card, it’s hard to suggest a different one.

View all my other reviews here.

The last item I got from the Kickstarter campaign of Peak Design was the POV kit. But as I had no use for it, I had no way to test it out. But recently I got the GoPro camera, so it immediately became useful. The POV kit is a addition to the Capture clip from Peak design. On it’s own it can’t be used. The purpose is to attach a GoPro camera or a compact camera to the capture clip.

You get a lot of small parts in the POV kit. Some are specific for the use with a GoPro, some for the use with a compact camera. For the GoPro you can also choose to use the arm to attach it, or attach it dirrectly to the quick release plate.

You will also get a small pad, that should be used if you want to have additional padding and stability, when you attach the Capture Clip to a backpack strap. You also get a second set of longer screws for the Capture clip (needed when you use the pad).

Here you can see the setup for a GoPro and a setup for a compact camera. I like the one with the arm more, and that’s how I’ve been using it all the time. It easier to move the camera when connected to it.

It’s a shame that there was no second screw included, as a setup where you use the arm for a compact camera, is not possible. I put it together only because I had additional screw from the GoPro package.

Connecting a GoPro is very easy, and after a few days of use, I liked to used the POV kit more, than the default mounts of the GoPro. The quick release on the Capture clip is just much more versatile (you can put it in any orientation) and is much more easier to release with one hand, than the GoPro releases.

Also attaching the Capture clip to a backpack strap, and so having the camera right there for a nice POV view, is very easy. I just wished that they would include an option, where you could rotate the arm in the quick release. My backpack has only one strap and it goes across my chest, so if I connect the Capture clip on it, the camera is not leveled. I have to put it on crooked, to level up the camera, but it’s not the best solution.

Overall this does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It’s a simple addition, but if you use the Capture clip and the GoPro camera, this can combine these two very nicely.

For more information, please visit the Peak design site.

View all my other reviews here.

An we have another Tuesday here, and another process post. For today I have chosen an evening shot from Paris, so lets take a look at it.

For this photo, I took 6 exposures, but used only 5. I had no need for the +2EV. As always I started in Lightroom, where I corrected the white balance, horizon line a cropped the image. From there I loaded all the brackets into Photoshop and continued with the following edits (layers numbered from bottom up):

1. -2EV exposure to start with, as I usually start with the one, from which I want to use the sky
2. -3EV exposure to tone down few bright spots
3. -1EV exposure to brighten the foreground
4. 0EV exposure to brighten the foreground even more
5. +1EV exposure to brighten the trees
6. added detail using a high pass filter
7. Color Efex pro contrast, to bring more local contrast into the photo, but then toned down with opacity at 60%
8. a little bit of overall contrast using curves

And that was all.

Here you can see the original 0EV exposure, for the camera info, please visit the original blog post.

Topaz Adjust is another very popular Photoshop plugin, used to enhance the look of photos. Similar to Nik Color Efex Pro, it’s a huge set of presets, but different to it, here are all the presets done using the same set of adjustments. And there are quite a lot of those.

You can either start by choosing one of the presets, or jump directly into the specific adjustments. There are split into three categories: Global Adjustments, Local Adjustments and Finishing Touches.

Global adjustments are the once you will use the most here. You can use Adaptive Exposure to balance the images tonal values and to add more color and local contrast. You can use the Details sliders to give you photo a crazy amount of detail. Similar you can use the Color adjustments to add more color. Topaz adjust also supports adaptive saturation, which is similar to vibrance in Lightroom.

Under local adjustments you can find adjustments like burn or dodge. It is debatable if this is useful. If you are using this plugin from Photoshop, you can do the same directly there, if you are using it from Lightroom, maybe then they are more handy. You can also selectively brush out the effect from the photo, but I think using Photoshop layers for this is much easier.

As finishing touches you can add a Vignette, Grain, Warmth, Border and more. This are all classic adjustments, that can be done in many different ways, but if you are unfamiliar with advanced adjustments in Phtoshop or Lightroom, this can make your work easier.

The most unique feature of Topaz Adjust is the Adaptive exposure. It can pull out a lot of detail and tonal range from a single exposure, so you can even fake a HDR look with it. But if you do, I really suggest you tone it down later in Photoshop. The results of Topaz Adjust are usually quite strong and very prominent in the photos. You can think about it as, if you can recognize the used filter from the look of the photo, than you have overdone it.

Here are few of my favorite presets from Topaz Adjust 5:

Dramatic:

Adds a lot of drama to the photo. If blended properly, it will bring out detail and local contrast in the final photo.

Photo pop:

Probably the most useful preset. Adds a little color, contrast and detail. Makes the photo “pop”. Can help a lot of photos to stand out. The effect is usually very subtle, but noticeable.

Mild detail:

This is similar to unsharp mask in Photoshop, or structure in Nik Viveza. Adds a lot of sharpness and small details.

Overall the Topaz Adjust plugin can create stunning results. But if you want to use it, use it gently. I really advise blending its results with the original images.

For more information, please visit the Topaz Adjust page.

View all my other reviews here.

And we have Tuesday again, so it’s time for another process post. As every week I have for you one photo, where I will go through the editing process from start to finish. Btw. I still don’t know what to call these posts. Processing Tuesdays? Edit of the week? Andy suggestions? :)

So for today, I chosen this manual blend of a nice aerial view of Bratislava.

As always I started with Lightroom. For this one, I had to correct the white ballance, and do some perspective corrections, as I was pointing my camera down when I took this. In retrospect when looking at this photo, I could have done a better job cropping, as I haven’t noticed the ship in the bottom right at all before today.

After that I loaded all the exposures into Photoshop. There I did the following edits (numbered from bottom up):
1. 0EV exposureI
2+3. -1EV and -2EV to darken the lights of the city
4+5. +1EV and +2EV to brighten the shadows, mostly in the bottom right
6+7. added glow to the photo, this recovers some lost contrast and also boosts the colors (view my glow tutorial for details)
8+9. this is something I don’t do often but it helps in certain situations. I used the Color Efex Detail Extractor to add more detail and color to the photo. But as I liked the color on the whole image, but the detail only on part, I did the following. I duplicated the layer, set one to Luminosity (so it only affects the detail) and used masks to limit what it affects. Then I set the second one to color for the whole picture.
10. Added 0.5 exposure to the darkest parts of the image
11. Added a little saturation to the whole image

And that was all. Here you can see the original 0EV exposure, and to see the camera settings, please visit the original post here.