Sami Hurmerinta

I've tried out the new AI plugins, and found them brilliant (except maybe for JPEG to RAW AI, which doesn't seem to do much). When I started photography, I bought a used lens that was broken (I didn't realize that until much later). The lens was misaligned, and because of that about 1/4 of every photo taken with it was really soft in the upper left corner. The lens ruined most of the photos I took during my first year, including most of the photos I took on my trip to Japan. I've tried all kinds of tools to fix those images, but Sharpen AI has been the first one that actually works. It's pretty uncanny to see the lost detail again. I know this isn't a problem that affects many people, but for me salvaging those memories is valuable. I have to admit though, that one reason I'm so happy with the tools is that I got DeNoise and Sharpen for free since I'd bought the previous Topaz tools years ago. So I can't honestly say if they are worth the price. I've also found that DeNoise AI can improve my old images taken in low light with compact cameras and mobile phones, because it recreates details lost in the noise and shadows. Compared to noise reduction in Lightroom, for example, the difference is staggering. That said, I wouldn't recommend the AI tools to photo journalists, because these tools actually create new content to the images. I haven't done an extensive comparison between AI Gigapixel and other resizing tools, but based on a couple of tests, Gigapixel seems to produce more detailed images when enlarging images that Photoshop. Topaz has a 30-day free trial, so you could just try them out to see for yourself. The AI tools are slow on my old desktop (and old i5 processor + 16 GB RAM, and an Nvidia GTX680 graphics card with 2GB RAM), so I don't use them for all images. But the sharpening plugin, for example, produces sharper images with less artifacts than Lightroom, even when used on technically good images, so I've started applying it before printing. So basically, if you're happy with the technical quality of your images, I think you'd do just fine without these tools. But if asked, do they produce better results than competitors, I'd have to say they do.

Mine stopped working last weekend. It just keeps crashing when I try to start it. I'm using Windows 10, but I've heard the same thing happening to other people using Windows 7 too

I think clearing the browser cache helped. But it's kind of weird that it did because I just did that a couple of days ago and haven't logged into Alamy since then.

Chrome isn't working for me either. I even changed my password to make sure that I used the correct one to log in, but it still doesn't work on Chrome. Works fine on IE, though. When I try to log in using Chrome I can see the My Alamy menu in the top right corner, but when I open the menu and select My Alamy from there, I'm taken back to the login screen instead of my Dashboard.

TokyoM1ke beat be to it, but this is how I, as a Finn, would pronounce it. I do use the bo-kay version too because it seems more understandable to native English speakers, but I prefer the Japanese pronunciation (maybe because that's what we use in Finnish too).

No, but we fellow Scandinavians sure like to make jokes about this. Quite sure Danes are no better, not to speak about the Swedes and Norwegians. The jokes are different for each country, but better leave them where they belong... Don't want to hijack this thread, but I unfortunately there's a truth in those jokes too. A small (but loud) percentage of the population certainly fits the image everyone has about us. But enough about that and back to the original topic.

It's not only during summers when everyone in Helsinki is drunk. Just kidding, of course. We Finns aren't nearly as attracted to booze as people seem to think.

I was browsing one of the RF only agencies and their are many crowd scenes - 200-300 people which either say "Model Released" or "No releases necessary" Do you mean that you suspect that they don't have a model release for all those people? Sorry, If I've misunderstood your meaning, but a lot of agencies don't require model releases for RF images of crowds if there aren't single people who stand out from the crowd. Again, sorry if I misunderstood and just stated the obvious. Sami

That's what I was planning to do too. I wouldn't trade my Android phone to an iPhone, but I'd like to start submitting to Stockimo.

I've used Crashplan for about eight months now, so far it has worked really well and it's fairly inexpensive.

I've used Simply Electronics twice and never had any problems. The items were first shipped to UK and from there to Finland. Still, considering the lack of warranty, the next time I need something I think I'll just order it from a local retailer. A lot of people seem to have had problems with SE and in my opinion the uncertainty isn't worth the cheaper price.

There are a few model release apps for Android and iPhone that let you save the model's information and other info that you would have to fill in every time. For me they save a lot of work. I'm not sure if Alamy accepts releases from apps, but I've found them useful. I've used Easy Release on Android, but there seem to be quite a few free ones available as well on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=model+release&c=apps At least some of the apps allow you to use your own model releases, so it should be possible to copy Alamy's release to them if necessary.

EDIT: It seems Jill was a tad faster in answering Brent's question.

Their app is only available for Apple devices, but you can submit images taken with other phone brands through the traditional channels.

Finally got a letter from Adobe last week, about the same time as fotoDogue. I was kind of hoping I wasn't affected by the whole thing...