Hi {name},

Welcome to Lenscraft in Focus for September 2021.

Whilst this year began slowly, I’m now finding that I can’t believe where the time has gone. And despite a rather later Spring this year, the heather season seems to have arrived (and finished) earlier than expected. The display was spectacular though, and I managed a couple of outings to photograph the scene. Here’s one from Surprise View, just after sunset.

I had hoped for a more dramatic sunset but frustratingly that didn’t happen. I guess that’s one of the enjoying things about landscape photography. You never know how the shots are going to work out.

Last month I mentioned that I had a copy of the new ON1 NoNoise AI software and that it looked promising. But as I already owned and regularly used Topaz DeNoise AI, I wasn’t in a rush to try NoNoise. Wow was that the wrong thing to do; I think Topaz has a real fight on its hands. You can read more in one of this month’s articles where I test out the performance and compare the results with DeNoise AI.

Something else that came up this month was a question from a couple of people. They wanted to know if I thought that crop sensor cameras could compete with full frame given some of the recent software developments. I thought it was a great question and one that deserved an article. I’ve tried to answer in a brief article that turned out to be quite lengthy.

I hope that you find this month’s newsletter and articles interesting.

Robin

Nik Collection Prize Draw Winner

Last month I ran a free prize draw to win a license for the new Nik Collection 4. I would like to say thank you to the hundreds of people who entered and congratulations to Paul Walker from Australia who won. Paul now has his license key and I hope that he is enjoying the benefits of the latest version of the Nik Collection.

New Lenscraft Content

Over the past month I’ve focused on publishing new tutorials and articles. Here’s the list of what you can find on Lenscraft.

Photographers You May Not Know – Marc Adamus

I first became aware of Marc’s work probably 5 years ago whilst visiting my daughter in France. We were in Nantes town centre and decided to visit the YellowKorner gallery to see if they had some work by one of my friends. They did have a couple of his great shots, but they also had a wall of amazing landscapes, which mostly appeared to be shot by the same photographer. I particularly remember one ultra-wide angled shot of some lilies flowering under the branches of a tree. It was a huge print, and the composition, colours, detail, and depth of field were amazing. At that time, I hadn’t seen anything like it, but I didn’t see the photographers name. It was only some months later that I discovered Marc’s name when I found his work in the excellent “Masters of Landscape” book.

Marc’s work is very distinctive and may not be to everyone’s taste; many of the shots seem somehow too perfect. But even if you don’t enjoy this style of photography, you will recognise the excellence and dedication his work exhibits. Please do find some time to visit his website https://www.marcadamus.com to view his portfolio. I’m sure you will find it rewarding.

Books & Course News

Latest book and course news from Lenscraft.

Photoshop Layers

The rewrite of my Photoshop Layers book is progressing well and I’m nearing the end of the first draft. As I mentioned previously, this isn’t an update of the material in the current version. This is an entirely new book and approaches the subject in a very different way, with plenty of practical exercises to follow.

Once I’ve finished the first draft, I expect the subsequent revisions and reviews to take another 4-6 weeks, so I hope to have the book available towards the end of October. In terms of price, I will keep to the £6.49 pricing I use for other books. There will also be a print version of the book available but sometime after the eBook. I will be able to confirm that books price once the print layouts and page count is confirmed.

Until next month, stay safe and enjoy your photography.

Robin

Landscape Photographer & Author

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