Hi {name},

Welcome to the Lenscraft in Focus newsletter for February 2022.

I’ll start with a quick photo of Blackpool shot over the Christmas period. I want to share this because it makes an important point about using wide angle lenses.

It was captured using a 12-60 lens on a micro four thirds camera at 12mm. In full frame terms that’s a 24mm focal length which isn’t considered super wide.

I’m sure many of you reading this have and use much wider lenses and yet your images possibly don’t look as extreme. That’s because there’s a technique to using a wide-angle lens that makes it look wider than it is. Unfortunately, many photographers don’t about, or have forgotten this point. If you want to see a short video where I demonstrate this, you can watch it on YouTube.

I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter.

Robin

Nik Poll Results

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Nik Collection survey last month. It was certainly an eye-opener for me. It seems many of you are concerned by the question of where to use the tools in your workflow. This is closely followed by knowing which tools to use and how to use the Control Points.

I’ll be using this information over the coming months to create new tutorials and videos about the Nik Collection.

Website & Newsletter Problems

Could I apologise to anyone having problems viewing some or all the images in my newsletter or website. I’ve identified two separate (but similar) problems which I need to highlight.

The first relates to images in the newsletter. Each month I receive several emails saying there are no emails in my newsletter. To date, this has been caused by email reader settings which I have no control over. If you experience a problem with images not being displayed, the fix has been to add my email to your safe sender list, whitelist, or security/privacy settings. Unfortunately, there are so many settings and email readers that I can’t be any more specific and I can’t offer support. I have been in touch with the people who run my email. They are aware of this problem but also say there is nothing they can do.

The second problem is also with images not being displayed but on website pages when they first load. If you see this, try refreshing the page a couple of times, and most of the images load. I’m investigating the problem which is proving difficult because I can’t reproduce it. Most people who have contacted me with this problem are using the Apple Safari Browser. If you are experiencing the same issue with another browser, please let me know as it may help me identify a fix.

Thank you.

New Lenscraft Content

Here’s a list of the new articles and tutorials published on Lenscraft over the past month.

From Around the Web

This month, I’ve discovered a few things that you might find useful or interesting.

Luminar Neo Release

I had hoped I would be writing that Luminar Neo has been released, but it looks like I need to wait a little longer. The software remains scheduled for a “Winter” release, but there aren’t many more Winter days left.

It feels like a long time since I pre-ordered my copy back in November 2021 and I’m looking forward to the release. I have tried out an early beta version and I was impressed by some of the features. Whilst still buggy, the software was easy to work with an made a big improvement to my images. I will share more thoughts following the release.

New Dehancer Film Emulation Plugin

I was recently approached by Dehancer, asking if I would like to review their Film Emulation plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom. Ordinarily I don’t do reviews for software that I haven’t purchased, but in this instance, I was interested in the product. I’m a big fan of plugins and it isn’t often that a new one is released. If you don’t know about Dehancer, they write film emulation plugins for the Davinci Resolve video editing software.

You can watch my review on YouTube.

Although Dehancer gave me a license key to try the software, this isn’t a paid review and I have given my honest opinion of the software.

Lifelike Book

Whilst I was researching for my review of the Dehancer Plugin, I came across the book “Lifelike”. You can read it on the Dehancer website for free. I haven’t read the entire book, but some of the chapters I delved into were interesting. Here’s the link

https://blog.dehancer.com/lifelike-book/

Photographers You May Not Know – Mitch Dobrowner

Some of you reading this may well know Mitch Dobrowner’s work, and I have mentioned him in the past. In fact, Mitch was once kind enough to do a guest piece for one of my newsletters. But as the number of Lenscraft subscribers has grown since then I want to introduce his work again.

I first came across Mitch whilst searching for examples of infrared photography shot using a Sony R1 camera. I owned an R1 at the time and was considering converting it to shoot Infrared. I didn’t convert the camera, but I did become a fan of Mitch’s work.

Please do take a few minutes to visit his website and enjoy the wonderful photography. I find the desert landscapes are particularly captivating.

http://mitchdobrowner.com

Books & Course News

Latest book and course news.

New Book - Lightroom Selections and Masks

I’ve finished my latest book about using Lightroom Selections and Masks last month. There are only a few final checks now before it’s released. I’m aiming to price it at just £4.99 (or similar in other currencies) but I can’t finalise the price until I see Amazon’s publishing fees.

I’ll be sending out an email when the book is available.

Until next month, stay safe and enjoy your photography.

Robin Whalley

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