I’m using the Phantom 4 Pro now, but I’ve stopped autobracketing. I’ve noticed that whenever I take multiple brackets into Aurora (or Photomatix) that they get very noisy. So now I just bring a single RAW photo in and it seems to work fine.
All I can gather is the small sensor size (Even though the P4 Pro is 4x it’s lesser cousins in size) still has a bit of micro-noise that adds up when you combine multiple photos.
Daily Photo – Sunrise in Half Moon Bay
I had really bad luck weather the whole time I was here at Half Moon Bay. On the final morning before the family flew to Denver, there was finally a good sunrise. I had been planning to get out there with my quadcopter to get this kind of a shot. It was very windy, but it was able to hold steady enough to get a few good shots! By the way, this is the beautiful Ritz-Carlton there. The night before, the bagpipe player came out at sunset while we all at smores over the firepit. How awesome!
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Switching from a Mac to Windows PC
I converted to Apple over 5 years ago when it was clear to me Apple made the best products for creative professionals. I loved Apple and became a hardcore fanboy. I was all-in. Now, I’m switching back to PCs. The new line of MacBook Pros are not-that-awesome. Apple has always been a company that makes beautiful, well-designed products (and still does), but they’ve started to put an emphasis on sleek design form over professional function.
What about the New New Macbook Pro (2017)?
Let’s look at some history here. Mid 2012, Apple released a killer MacBook Pro. I loved it so much. That same design with no serious upgrades hung out for over FOUR years till the end of 2016. That’s an epoch in computer years. Then, when they DID announce the Macbook Pro with the TouchBar, it, in many people’s opinions, including mine, was a step backwards. It was not any faster (after 4+ years!), limited memory, only had USB C ports, resting track-hand issues, and more. So, going on 5 years with no upgrades (downgrades, in fact), it left many of us hardcore users in a strange place.
In mid 2017, Apple finally released a good MacBook Pro that fixed many of the issues from the previous one. It is an upgrade for sure, but there are still a few problems with it. I can’t put more than 16 GB RAM in there, still only USB-C which means you need a lot of dongles, and the keyboard is strange because you end up typing quite “loud” to complete the travel of the keys. I still use it for some purposes, especially because we build our photo-editing software Aurora HDR for both machines. I’m between worlds, but mostly using the PC because I still find it faster and more workhorsey.
I need a more powerful machine that can handle a LOT. I doubt I’m the only creative professional in this situation. Nowadays, my camera’s RAW files are bigger (I use a Hasselblad X1D, but my MacBook was still choking with my Sony A7Rii files), and I do a lot of video work as well.
Unboxing the Beast
Nothing better than unboxing a new toy! I also advise not using a corkscrew to unbox anything… even though I’ve probably done it over a dozen times, I haven’t improved.
More reasons for the Switch
Windows 10 is getting really good, and Microsoft really seems to be innovating. I’m impressed and never thought I’d see the day… I thought they might just spiral down like IBM or WANG, but I’m happy they are making a come back.
I’m also not an iPhone user, having switched to Android a long time ago. The new Google Pixel phone simply amazing! I’m pretty objective, and it is just a better phone all around, and it gets you out of that ridiculous closed Apple ecosystem.
Even though I had a Macbook and an iPad, I always found the ecosystem to be quite confusing. iCloud will NOT stop demanding my family and I pay it more money. I never liked the Apple software apps like Mail (I use Google Inbox) or Apple Maps (I use Google Maps). While I was using Apple Photos to organize my final portfolio shots, I found it to be somewhat confusing and not as powerful as I needed it to be.
Another reason is I really want to get into VR more and you need a powerful Windows machine for that. I want to do 360 art, play 360 games, and all that fun stuff. I’m a big gamer, and I like the idea of playing all those Steam games on my Windows laptop and even my tablet (I got the Surface Pro as well).
How’s the Switch Going?
Great! It hasn’t been as hard to switch to Windows 10 as I thought. Most of my woes have been around adjusting my photography workflow, but I needed to update that anyway. I was heavily reliant on a workflow where I had combined Adobe Lightroom and Apple Photos (formerly iPhoto), because I liked to keep my final portfolio in Photos. It synced nicely to my iPad and everything.
Basically, I want to do everything on a big beefy laptop but also have a light tablet-like computer for more casual things.
My Shopping list – Essentials
I used to build my own PC gaming machines back in the day before I switched to Apple. I did a ton of of my own research this time around, and I remembered back in the day when I would build my own gaming PCs that I bought everything from Newegg! When I decided to switch, I called up my contacts over there to send over some of the goodies listed in this article and I’d link to them in this Switch Guide… so here we go! 🙂
I’ve recently added a second Windows computer to my mix – a desktop! I set up this desktop computer in my studio at home to serve as the mothership for everything. I have the new Microsoft Surface Studio, and it is amazing! If you don’t know about this computer, be sure to check out this video. How awesome, eh? Honestly, this screen is bigger and more beautiful than any of my Macs. Apple used to have a monopoly on this stuff, but no more. I love this machine!
Here’s a Strange Reason to Switch
I’ll give you a somewhat strange reason (but not my main reason). It gives you a chance to clean all your stuff up and re-organize. It’s literally like moving into a new house. It’s a pain, but it can also be kind of fun! Also, counter-intuitively it’s good for creatives to “mix things up” from time to time and be a bit uncomfortable. I’m not going to get all philosophical here, but maybe you know what I mean. You can read more about my new storage in Step 4 below.
Switching while on the Go
The switch from Mac to Windows is challenging enough but I also did it while on a family vacation, moving from location to location. I was actually in the middle of a 60-day photo adventure around the world with my the wife and kids and everything. Balancing all that, the photography, AND a computer OS/hardware switch was quite the Olympian feat, I must say! 🙂
Trey’s Guide for Creative Professionals to Switch from Mac to Windows
This guide is a bit Trey-centric because, well, I am. Although from what I can tell, I have a fairly typical setup for a photography workflow. I mostly use Adobe products, which takes away 80% of the switching pain. I’d say the other 20% is a combination of finding those “little” apps you liked so much on the Mac and finding their counterparts on Windows. Well that, and getting used to the new UI!
Step 1 – Get your essential programs up and running
There’s an old joke about Internet Explorer – the first thing you do with it is download Google Chrome. That joke is so old now that Internet Explorer has been replaced by “Edge,” but you can still download Chrome. Actually, I used Edge a bit and it’s pretty good. They say that it’s more optimized for Windows 10, but I can’t tell any difference yet.
Here’s a list of the most important things I installed first when setting up the new machine:
Adobe Creative Cloud (I installed Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro for video)
Note: It is recommended that you try to get the apps from their websites rather than the Windows store, where sometimes the apps can be a bit outdated or imperfect.
Additional Windows software that do various things:
I used my new sleek Samsung T3 Drive and began copying all my documents to it. I tended to drag whole folders, many of which were full of other folders. Even though I was dropbox-syncing, I also moved it over manually. It sped up the process quite a bit.
If you’re not that familiar with the Mac folder system, be sure to look all through the Finder window at all the core directories on the left side. I had almost everything important under /TreyRatcliff — everything should copy over fine. Here’s some notes to think about:
There’s no need to copy anything under “Applications” because those apps won’t work on Windows.
If you’re planning to use this as an opportunity to “clean up” or “reorganize” your Dropbox, don’t do that until you have everything 100% copied over. If you make directory changes in the middle of a sync, it gets confusing. One thing at a time.
If you have native app files, like Keynote files or Numbers files, be sure to convert them to Powerpoint or Google Docs first. I highly recommend Google Docs… just get them uploaded to your Google Drive and begin that conversion.
If you have some “really fancy” Keynote docs, you may want to convert to Powerpoint, but understand that you’ll have to spend some time in Powerpoint to make those presentations as “smooth” as they were in Keynote. It’s possible… but it takes a while.
If you can fit your whole Adobe Lightroom directory on a single drive, then do that. Mine is over 10 TB and is on a Pegasus Thunderbolt drive. So, in my case, I connected the old Pegasus Thunderbolt drive to my MacBook along with the new WD 16TB drive via USB and I made the copy that way.
I’m not sure of an “easy” or automatic way to auto-sync my Lightroom Presets and Adobe Actions. I had to go find those directories and copy over directly. To find your Lightroom Presets, go into your Lightroom Preferences and look under Presets, there you’ll see a shortcut button.
Step 3 – Get signed in Everywhere and start Syncing
This is always a bit of a small logistical pain. Luckily if you’re a Google and Facebook user, then getting logged into those first helps with the other programs you may use like Spotify and Chrome.
Adobe Creative Cloud is pretty straightforward. Remember you can only have 2 active logins with Creative Cloud, which I think is stupid. But that’s how they roll there at Adobe. Anyway, you can use your new computer to log out of all the others and create two new ones. It’s not too tough.
If you’re a Spotify user and like local copies of all your music, you may need to log into their website and activate/deactivate different devices. You get three there.
At this point, you should have all your programs signed in and the full syncing will begin. Everything from Evernote to Dropbox to Spotify to Chrome Favorites or whatever is in your app world will start to copy over.
Step 4 – The Great Storage Adventure
Note this only applies if you are not dropbox/google syncing all your files. In my case, I have 12 TB of photos, and Dropbox would take at least another adniminstration to sync.
The first thing you need to know about sharing large capactity storage between Windows and MacOS is that how the external storage is formatted makes a HUGE difference. Since Windows and MacOS can both read and write to exFAT drives, it’s good to format the drive on the Mac using exFAT. I tried doing this on the PC and the Mac cound not see it. When you go into Disk Utility on the Mac, just choose exFAT to format your new drive. Easy!
Starting with the My Cloud Pro, first think about how you want your storage configured. My NAS is the 16TB model and it arrived set to 2x8TB mirrored (basically 8TB of storage with the 2nd drive used to keep a seperate copy of every file an automated process). I used the web interface for the NAS to re-configure the drive to show as a single 16TB volume. (HOT TIP: When you first use the NAS, update the firmware then set the web interface timeout to be as long as possible. With the default settings the login times out before you complete the drive configuration and so it has to be done again.)
Step 4+ – Keep the Aurora HDR Party Going
Aurora HDR Now for Mac or Windows!
Aurora HDR is now available for both Mac AND Windows! That’s right, the world’s leading HDR photography software has been entirely redesigned with exciting new features, improved user interface, speed improvements, Windows support and more. I’ve been using it a ton and I think you’ll be blown away!
Current users of Aurora HDR should check this link to see if you qualify for the upgrade price. New users can purchase Aurora HDR and my new Aurora HDR tutorial in my online store.
Already own Aurora HDRand want to upgrade? Click here to find out if you qualify.
Sneak Peek Inside Aurora HDR
Below is a sneak peek video I made that shows off just SOME of the new features!
Step 5 – Use the Windows Machine exclusively for the first week
I noticed when I switched from Nikon DSLRs to the Sony mirrorless systems that it was really a difficult switch when I had both available. I knew the Nikon system so well and I would have great photo ops. For example, I was offered a cool helicopter ride up to a glacier. I was staring at my two cameras on the table, and I would usually take the Nikon because I knew the system so well and I didn’t want to risk it with the Sony.
Well then one day in Sydney my Nikon broke, so all I had was the Sony. I was forced to use it for a few weeks and I ended up loving it a lot more. I was able to see how much better it was and learned all of the advantages.
I’m now seeing that with Windows. Yes, learning things in the new OS are a little painful. Windows is not quite as slick as iOS in a lot of ways. I found the trackpad not quite as nice for example, and I had to re-train my brain about a few different things. But that only took a week, and now I’m pretty smooth with it!
Step 6 – Get your Color Right
By default, your new PC will have a different color profile than your Mac. At the very least you’ll have to open your color preferences and adjust the saturation until it is the same as your Mac. I recommend you pull up your 10 favorite photos and put them side by side, adjusting the saturation and color on your new PC until they are the same. Even though this system is calibrated at the factory by MSI (and has built in color profiles) this is a mistake I made and for about a week, my photos were a bit off and more de-saturated than I like. I only noticed when I looked on my wife’s mac and my photos looked less colorful than I preferred.
Bonus Step 7 – Surface Pro
Party with the Microsoft Surface Pro! I didn’t think I’d like this machine, but I was wrong. I like it better than my iPad for sure. It’s a fully functional computer and not just a tablet. I’ve actually been altering my workflow quite a bit where I do many “daily” things on my Surface Pro – things like email, social media, Facebook stuff, etc etc. It’s a tiny little machine that I can set on my lap or anywhere. It’s also great because I can play Steam games on it, it travels well, I can do lightweight Lightroom stuff — I have some folders synced with my big computer, etc.
Bonus Step 8 – Use your NVIDIA Graphics Card with Adobe Products
This wasn’t obvious and was nowhere in the documentation. But the MSI computer has a “GFX” button under the power button to the left of the keyboard. When you click that, it asks you to reboot to use the fast NVIDIA card at all times. This can have performance benefits in some applications such as Lightroom which by default use the less powerful Intel GPU rather than auto switch to the NVIDIA which happens when gaming. Now I just keep that NVIDIA GPU on all the time (no need to reboot). On the downside, it eats up more battery, but I am connected to power most of the time.
Bonus Step 9 – Virtual Reality
I bought the funky HTC Vive VR Kit! This has been an unexpected joy to our family. We all LOVE playing VR. There are now so many fun games and apps – the kids and wife go crazy for it. I could stay in VR Google Earth forever. At some point, I’ll put together a list of all my favorite VR Apps and Games for you!
Bonus Step X – Questions??
Okay, okay, this is a living document… what did I miss? What have you discovered? Add to the comments below! And thanks for reading this far – I hope you found it helpful! 🙂
It’s been a long two weeks but the wait is finally over, the new Aurora HDR 2017 for Macs is finally here and ready to download! I developed this software along with Skylum, an amazing company that has already created many other stunning photography tools for the Mac. The idea that after 10 years I finally got to create my own High Dynamic Range photography software and jam-pack it with all my favorite tricks was absolutely intoxicating!
I’ve been using this software now for a short eternity and we’ve taken my experience plus some great feedback from other users to create this new version. You can head over to our Aurora HDR 2017 Page see all the long list of new and improved features.
Note: Aurora HDR 2017 is still for Macs only. Yes, we truly are working on a Windows version (harder than it sounds) and when it’s released you will be the first to know!
Current Users of Aurora HDR Pro can upgrade for $49. Click here to find out if you qualify for an upgrade.
New Customers can Order Now for only $89, (Extended Pre-Order price for one week only until October 6).
New software… and new HDR tutorial to go with it!
It is an hour long Video tutorial to show how I use Aurora HDR 2017 in practically every situation. From outdoors to indoors, mixes to architecture, moving objects to single photos, people photos and everything in between. You’ll see how I use the tool in slightly different ways for all these situations. As usual, I start out the tutorials very slowly, aimed at total beginners. But then we move on to intermediate and advanced techniques.
Trey’s Super Bundle
If you’re feeling a little adventurous you should check out the Super Bundle which includes both Aurora HDR 2017 AND my full-length HDR Video Tutorial for Macs all in one, for cheaper than it would be to buy them separately 🙂
At some magical point today, Aurora HDR 2017 will become available for Pre-Order! I’ve been working on this thing like crazy, and I can’t wait to get it in your hands. Below are two videos where I talk more about it. One is an overall preview and the next is a hot tip.
What do you get with the Pre-Order?
Pre-Order Bonus Items:
Trey Ratcliff Deep Dive video and RAW files
1 Year basic subscription to SmugMug
60-day KelbyOne membership
25 Square Prints from Parabo.press (free global shipping)
What’s the history and the deal with Aurora HDR 2017?
A few years ago, I called up MacPhun to see if they wanted to collaborate on the ultimate HDR program. They said yes, and we built the original one over a year ago. It went gangbusters and has over 650,000 downloads. Yes, it’s only Mac so far, but there is a Windows version in development. Anyway, we listened to all the feedback and ideas and made this new version. As usual, I’ve been testing it all along the way…
What are the updates?
There are over 20 updates, but here are the latest ones.
New Luminosity Masks controls
New Zone System allows selective masking of specific areas of an image; new controls provide extensive fine-tuning, allowing users to make brightness adjustments in more precise areas.
New tone-mapping engine
The improved algorithm is quicker, reduces noise, and handles tone, contrast and details in all areas of your photo for more realistic, sharp and natural tone-mapping results.
New batch processing
Automatically recognizes brackets, and adds support for sub-folders and Batch preset – the single most requested feature since the launch of Aurora HDR.
New Polarizing filter
Emulating the polarisation filter added to a lens, this feature gives colours more depth with a single swipe, and cuts haze – perfect for landscape photographers.
New powerful one-click presets
Including Signature Pro presets by Trey Ratcliff, Captain Kimo and Serge Ramelli, to yield fantastic results instantly.
New ways to work with Layers
Support of different Blend modes for Layers and Textures, with new options for Darken, Color Burn and Lighten.
New enhanced Top & Bottom Adjustment panel
Top and Bottom Adjustment includes new contrast, vibrance, and warmth sliders, adding an extra level of selective control.
Faster RAW processing & DNG support
Time-saving image processing, and improved DNG handling.
Introducing Aurora HDR 2017
Here’s a fun video I made that shows some of the new features.
Tip Video: Batch Processing
Here’s one of three new tip videos that illustrates the new Batch feature. To see all the videos and more, pop over to my Youtube Channel!
Today’s the day I arrive at Burning Man! To see pics from the last six years, see my Burning Man Portfolio here.
What’s in Trey’s bag – Burning Man Edition
Which bags do I use in which situation? Here’s a quick video I made! Thanks again to the amazing team at Peak Design for making me so extra-bag-happy! 🙂 More on the Kickstarter over here
Daily Photo – Central Park, Made with Aurora HDR 2017
I’ve been making HUNDREDS of photos, testing out the new software and getting everything ready for the new release. This looks pretty good, eh? I went back and got some of my still unprocessed frames from over 5 years ago when I was in Central Park. It’s great fun to “drudge” up these old memories and re-process them with new software!
I made a much better version of the Plotagraph Tutorial. This one shows full end-to-end and has more samples. I also talk a bit about the price as well as how to share on various social media.
Daily Photo – The Dunedin Sunrise Plotagraph
Remember, this was made out of a single JPG – how cool! I made this animation be a bit faster than most to add to the drama. But, of course, you can choose whatever speed you like. Actually, this one has two different speeds for the sky and the water (the water is barely moving).
Whenever you take a photo of a symmetrical situation, be sure to spend a few extra moments to make sure you are absolutely in the very middle. If you’re using a mirrorless camera with an EVF, switch through to the different modes where you see the most gizmos on the screen. You can use all those horizon/tilt gizmos as triangulation bits to like up symmetrical objects in the room. Take a little extra time, because it’s really tough to fix symmetry in Photoshop!
Daily Photo – Crossing through Alexandra
I’ve made many road trips from Queenstown to Dunedin in the past year… every time I go through Alexandra. This is what it looks like as you cross the bridge in the middle of the Autumn. How pretty! 🙂
25 Presets. 2 Tutorial Videos. 20 Sample Images. Rather Redonkulously Long Preset Names that are More Problematic than Helpful.
Hello Internet friends. Trey Here. As of the time of writing this, Aurora HDR Pro has only been out less than half a year and already has 250,000+ downloads. It’s clear people love this! Well, I use this almost every day… sometimes to process dozens of photos. I honestly love it. Remember when I used to use Photomatix? Remember back in the 70’s when I used to stand up and walk over to the Magnavox to change the channel? Yeah, that was pretty lame.
In the past few months, I’ve created about 100 presets. I thought about releasing all of them, but that seemed to be too silly and information over-load, so I decided on my favorite 25. I actually had a little Google Doc, and whenever I used one, I updated the spreadsheet. Pretty geeky I know, but it helped figure out the best 25.
I’ll be honest. Every set of photos is different and some of these presets will make your photo look amazing, and others like complete garbage. There, I said it. But listen, I’m an expert in this stuff, and you just can’t have a preset that works perfectly in Daytime + Nighttime + Indoor/Outdoor + CutePet. So, some will look amazing, others not so much. But don’t give up, next time you might get the inverted results!
One of my favorite new presets is called “Girls Love them some Jon Snow.” It’s dark and moody and has just the right amount of HDR. It works great in night situations. Another great one that works with night shots is “Horrible Mistakes on Snapchat.”
Looking for a good daytime filter? This one really plays with the dynamic glow, but I keep going to it. It’s called “ROBOT TREY Calls This 101101101” which is really a stupid name but Robot Trey doesn’t think about these things. Another daytime winner is “Chocolate Increases Happiness & Shame.” You’ll notice how there are thematic connections between the presets that hint towards an artist in an endless downward shame spiral.
Have an interior shot? I’ve got this one that was a total accident that always seems to work. It’s called, “BB8 is Like Waaaay Cuter than R2-D2.” There’s another great one, even though the results come out a bit more grainy and dodgy called “Crisco Twister with Aunty”
Anyway, that’s just a taste. There’s other weird situations too. You might even try “LEVEL X – Don’t click this for 1 month,” but don’t try it for a month. It’s a test of your will. Perhaps you might click the more daring B&W preset gently entitled “I Hope My Daughter Never Comes Home with a Black & White Guy.” Actually, it turns out that preset name was too long, so it’s been shortened to “Who’s that Black & White Guy??”
And even better, I’m including 20 of my photos you can play with (6 sets of 3 JPGs and 1 RAW file) as well as 2 Tutorial Videos showing you how I use these 25 presets!
Want to see what the new Aurora HDR Pro is all about? Here’s a Deep Dive video that shows how fun and amazing the software is!
It’s really just incredible… I use it to make all my HDR images. It has layers, curves, special glows, and more! I think you’re gonna love it. Here it is in our store!
Wow that San Francisco Photowalk was amazing! Here’s our recapped video for you of all the highlights.
Daily Photo – Before the Aurora!
I know I keep talkin’ about the new Aurora HDR Pro, but I’m so darned excited about it! I was especially just thinking about it because of today’s photo from San Francisco. I processed this one with Photomatix, and I got that strange banding and chunky noise in the sky. I don’t have those problems with noise in Aurora HDR Pro because there are two ways to get rid of it, using HDR Denoise and a tricky Clarity slider
