The latest version of Lightroom now includes a Guided upright feature. In the previous version under lens correction you had the options you see below:
The corrections were Auto, Level, Virtual or Full. Used with care it worked quite well but I don’t think too many people were aware of them as they were hidden in the Lens Correction Panel.
We now have the corrections in there own panel called Transforms with the new guided option. This allows you to select areas of the picture for it to key on correcting the verticals on the areas you select, or horizontals.
Full Correction in LR5As with many of these things corrections can go badly wrong to use with care.
This week I made myself have a lunch time walk around Lincoln. Each time I shot seventeen images (yes exactly seventeen on each walk).
Once back in my office I imported them into the iPad 9.7 Pro and did a quick select and edit of the ones I liked.
Usually for me I make my street photographs taken with the Leica into Black & White images but this time I kept most of them in colour. Most likely the wonderful weather putting me in a technicolour mood.
I did a quick a edit of the top shot on the iPad, boosting contrast, saturation, vibrance and clarity. I liked it even though its got a bit more colour impact then my usual shots.
Then as an experiment once home, I fired up the desktop computer and cloned the image processed on the iPad and then applied my usual Leica M8 People Preset. Then I returned the contrast, saturation, vibrance and clarity back to the iPad settings. A quick tweak of the back point and you have the second image.
Now I prefer the second image and it also shows that my custom Leica Preset I have created the the M8 certainly does a good job, but what I found interesting is that not having the presets available on the iPad and just developing the image by ‘touch’ has led me to a final image that is very different to the usual way I work and taken the image in a different direction.
Yesterday Adobe released Lightroom CC 2015.6. The big news for Leica users is support for the new Leica M-D, the screen-less Leica M (Type 240) based camera.
This release for Creative Cloud members include the new Guided Upright feature.
It’s designed to easily straighten images, fix horizons, and reduce or eliminate the keystone effect in buildings.
I’ll be testing it with a few Lincoln Cathedral shots to see if it affects corner resolution adversely.
I was rebuilding my old eight year old laptop, fresh format and clean install of just the apps I use. i.e. Mail, Internet Browser, Spreadsheet, Dropbox, iTunes with a few favourite tunes and of course Adobe Lightroom, GPS4Cam (adds GPS data to RAW files), and SD Formatter for when those pesky SD cards start to play up or run slow.
Now having a MacPro desktop for the heavy lifting, e.g. heavy Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop work, batch scanning etc, I don’t need a lot on my laptop.
In fact my last few trips out I have even managed with the iPad Pro 9.7 especially if shooting with a Leica or Hasselbald with the PhaseOne digital back; with their none propriety RAW files.
I’ll be replacing my laptop within the next two years, its likely this my 2008 Macbook Pro will become part of my HiFi system. I may just buy Caroline a new laptop and have her old one as its more then capable.
Out of fun I checked out the spec of Apple’s latest MacBook and compared it to mine. Now the current 12 inch MacBook while great for a portable road warrior who needs internet and email plus Microsoft Office, is under-spec in the ports department, having only one.
A photographers laptop, may need power, usb for tethering or memory card reader (remember not all professional cameras use SD Cards), external hard drive for backup etc
Power
Tethering or Card Reader
External Hard drive for Lightroom Catalogue or Files
External Hard drive for Backup
External Monitor or Projector
So your talking about five ports, my current laptop with Video out, Firewire, power, 2 USB manages this easily. The new MacBook would need a hub so even more cables etc to carry. Not an issue if your docking it in an office but a pain when travelling.
But ignoring the port issue which I am sure they will address with another model what about power. As you know Moore’s Law (yes I know its not a law just an observation) says computers double in power every eighteen to twenty-four months. So I decided to check out the geek bench scores of the current 12 inch MacBook. It is in fact twice as powerful as my current MacBook Pro but not as powerful as Caroline’s MacBook Pro Retina.
Its given me a few thoughts, lower end laptop but with more ports may be the way I go.
Its one week now till Photoshop World and it will be interesting if Adobe let us know whats coming for Lightroom and for the Creative Cloud Photographers Package.
Generally Adobe have been excellent at involving photographers in piloting new features and getting feed back, until the recent disaster with the new import module that they rolled out without consultation but quickly removed again.
So looking forward to seeing some new features. I would love to see preferences like metadata, locations, developer settings etc, sync’ed to the cloud.
So when on a laptop using a temp catalogue you still have all your settings. Having to update a preset on one computer then either doing again on another or copying (on a Mac) from ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom from one computer to another is a bit of a pain. I might automate it with a scripts and Dropbox one of these days.
Also allowing multiple catalogues to sync with the cloud instead of just one would also be cool.
A lot of new photographers get very confused about F-Stops. Basically with each F-Stop your reducing by half or doubling the amount of light hitting the film or sensor.
The numbers look odd, but thats because they are ratios of diameter to focal length.
Leica M4
Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4 ASPH 6-Bit
50mm, 1/500 Sec at f/8, ISO400
Developed in Ilford Ilfotec LC29
Scanned Epson V85p Pro
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom CC2015.5.1
On a Mac Pro, OS-X 10.11.5
This week I shot just over two rolls of Kodak Tri-X. Now you can send off your film and get the negs and a CD back within a week, but scanning costs keep going up so if your shooting Black & White its very easy to do it yourself.
I already had some fresh chemicals which I had ordered earlier in the year, along with ten rolls of Kodak Tri-X.
So with two complete rolls ready to develop it was time to get started.
Cracking open the film Canisters
I shoot large format and that requires loading and unloading the dark slides. For this I use a large changing bag, so first step is to get the changing bag loaded up.
In the changing bag I placed, scissors, a can opener, two film spool rolls and a developing in tank.
In total darkness you using the bag as your darkroom you first use the can opener to remove the film. If you have a film leader retriever you can start loading the spools in the light which makes things easier but I could not find mine.
Once the film is out of the film canister I trim off the leader and then start to load the film onto the spools. Once both films are loaded onto the spools you load them into the development tank. Once the film tank is assembled it is then light tight.
Now its time to mix the chemicals.
The essentials are a developer and a fix. The stop and the wetting agent are optional.
I mixed up some hot and cold water so that the water was at 20 C. Then mixed up the chemicals. For developer I use liquid not powered developer as its easier to mix but its cheaper in powered form. One part Ilfotec LC29 and nineteen parts of water. I mixed up 600 ml, the tank said 290 ml of chemicals per film so for two films I just rounded it up.
Stop is mixed the same and the fix is one part fix and five parts water. While all this was going on I kept the mixed chemicals in bottles stood in the sink. I had earlier filled the sink with water at 21 C to keep the chemicals at the right temperature.
You start the timing the moment you start to pour in the developer.
For this film and developer its six minutes and thirty seconds of development with agitation every minute.
Your pour out the developer ten seconds before the time ends and at the end of development time add the stop, or water if you have no stop.
Stop just needs ten seconds, then pour out and add the fix for five minutes
After that I gave it a ten minute wash, the amount you wash does depend on the type of fix you use.
Caroline then fixed up a line in the bathroom and both films were hung over night in the bathroom.
So there you have it quick and easy film developing.
The last day of our holiday, so where to go? Well there are two good quilt shops near Southwold, so we decided to visit Quilters Haven in Wickham Market.
Once again I was shooting mainly with the Leica M4 and Kodak Tri-X with is an old fashioned and grainy 400 ISO film.
While Caroline was checking out the fabric in the shop me and Timmy walked round the village and took in the sights. It was not long before I finished up my second roll of Tri-X on the holiday so I put the M4 away and then grabbed the M8 which these two shots were taken with.
So thats two rolls now to develop. Its been at least ten years since I last developed a film so this is going to fun. Luckily I still have my developing tank and recently even bought an insert so I can develop 5 x 4 inch sheet film.
