Family, Photography and other misc news
Update released for Adobe Lightroom, and Adobe Camera RAW.
“Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.4.1
The Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3.4.1 update includes these enhancements:
• Additional camera support for several new camera models including the Canon Rebel T3i, Nikon D5100 and Fuji FinePix X100
• Corrections for issues introduced in previous versions of Lightroom 3
• The Lightroom 3.4.1 update includes an important correction for a bug introduced in the Lightroom 3.4 release”
HDR. Usually used when the dynamic range of the view extends beyond the range that your sensor or film can capture.
Its also of use when you want to give a real boost to an image. If you look at the image above, it has a lot of potential but the light is not right. This is where HDR can be used to really give your picture a boost.
That boost that can give an unearthly feel to an image, or a cartoony feel to an image, depending on how you process the files.
When I saw this view I knew that the unearthly feel that HDR can give would give a fantastic looking image.
For my HDR work I use a product called Photomatix2. I make basic adjustments in Lightroom first then, export the files into Photomatix to combine them and produce the HDR file. It is then imported back into Lightroom.
Photomatix has a number of presets such as Normal, Smooth Skies, Painterly and Gunge. For this I picked Grunge, the most over the top option.
The downside of this option is that while it is capable of fantastic and dramatic images, it really makes the greens go completely outrageous.
After giving the image a few tweaks to make the best out of it I then saved it and took it back into Lightroom to fix the Greens and apply a couple of grad filters to darken the sky and the bottom of the picture. All in all just a few minutes work to produce and image that reflects more closely the emotion of what my eyes saw and not what the original capture produced.
Sometimes arranging a photographic shoot seems like one big complicated jigsaw.
My availability, the Studios availability, and the models availability; getting it all sorted can sometimes take days. Lets not forget, prop’s that have to be sourced, and sometimes a hairdresser and makeup artist.
One my photographic shoots that I am arranging currently feels just like that complicated Jigsaw.
Luckily I am dealing with a very professional model who understands these things.
Sometimes I think I should just take a pretty girl into a meadow and just shoot with natural light, but then you get weather issues.
99% of photography is nothing to do with taking the actual pictures!
Need to get images out of Lightroom and into your WordPress blog?
Terry White might just have found the answer!
The Adobe Lightroom team issued an important announcement concerning a bug that can affect jpg users.
“The Lightroom and Camera Raw team would like to inform you of a potentially severe bug that was introduced in the Lightroom 3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4 update. Please note that this bug only impacts customers who are saving metadata to JPEG files with a rare characteristic.(JPEG files must have an unusually large block of private camera data included in the file to be susceptible to the bug*) This scenario is so rare that we do not believe that it is necessary for customers who have already upgraded to revert to the previous version of Lightroom or Camera Raw. However, the bug could cause image corruption which falls within our highest severity category of bugs. The team believes it’s very important to notify you of the risk and provide an estimate of when we will be able to deliver a correction in the form of Lightroom 3.4.1 and Camera Raw 6.4.1. We intend to have these updates available by Friday, May 27th.”
Now if you knew me you would know that I am the last person you are likely to see on a horse but our photographic trip to the Outer Hebrides and the chance to ride in the surf on the beach was too good an opportunity to miss.
Caroline being the experienced horse woman was ready to jump straight on a horse and ride on out.
I needed a few lessons round the training circuit before I headed on out.
Caroline took the opportunity to snap a few photographs of me going round the training ring.
This is one of few photographs you will ever see of me on a horse!
The purpose of this last photography trip was primary for the wonderful landscape opportunities but I also had a go at Wildlife photography.
Now I am not very good at wildlife photography but I do enjoy it. I did get a few images that I am quite proud but there certainly not good enough to show.
But I know your all dying to see them so I thought I would post just a few, please don’t judge my people and landscape photography by these!
I really should have spent today processing my photographs from our trip to the Outer Hebrides but instead we borrowed a BMW R1200RT motorcycle from our local BMW dealer and spent the day exploring the Lincolnshire backroads.
Our touring is heavily ‘B’ road biased, but we often travel hundreds of miles on major roads to get to our destinations. Currently we have a R1200GS, a bike that cannot be beaten when the going gets tough, gravel roads, unpaved roads, fords; theres not much we have not thrown at it, and its coped amazingly.
A big tourer like the Honda Pan European or the BMW is always something I have aspired to, but while a big tourer can always get you to your destination quickly, in comfort and in style there not aways as much fun at the destination as say an off road bike or a sports bike.
This was always the advantage of the GS, some off road capability, agility and speed to keep up with most sports bikes and glorious fun on any type of road.
RT’s are always highly rated as tourers and I had no doubt that is would deliver when on ‘A’ roads and motorways, but what about the tight and twisty ‘B’ roads.
Lincolnshire has a fine collection of tight and twisty back roads, so today we gave the RT a real test. For its size it handles very well, and does not feel heavy or awkward at low speed. While I would not take one off road, it can certainly handle poor roads and 98% of the types of road we would use it on.
Negatives are few. The one we tried had a touring seat and not the standard seat. While fine for me not suitable for Caroline if she was riding it. Also the large fairing while protective did interfere at first when I tried to put my feet down.
Were not thinking of replacing our GS yet but the RT will certainly go on the short list as a possible future bike.
Now its time to get back to work and carry on processing, editing photos and also sort out some bookings I have for Weddings and Model Portfolio’s.
The last two days has seen us slowly heading home. We caught the lunchtime ship, from Tarbet on the Isle of Harris on Saturday, and we had the highlight of seeing Dolphins during the crossing. As always my wildlife photography was not up to the task and all I have is a blurred fin, disappearing under the wake of the ship, but the memory will remain with me forever.
We spent Saturday night in a small Bed and Breakfast in Ballachulish called Fern Villa, in Glencoe. The owner is a keen photographer and has many photographers staying with him.
The area is very popular with walkers, climbers and photographers. I took the opportunity on the way though the previous week to shoot a few Landscapes. I thought they might work as HDR shots, so bracketed widely.
I heavily processed one, and lightly processed the other, not sure which I prefer, but Caroline hates the heavily processed photo, and I have to admit its got that HDR Look!
Sunday we travelled to the Cumbria and stopped at the delightful Yew Tree Chapel, a most wonderful place to stay and two wonderful hosts.
Today we finally headed home after almost two weeks away photographing Landscapes and Wildlife.
We took the opportunity to head over to Mount Grace Priory a English Heritage property well worth a visit. The weather was not up to much so just a few reference shots but I will definitely be heading back.
Now that we are home we have the problem of dealing with all the hundreds of images that were taken over the holiday.
For a change I did not take a laptop with me but just our new iPad. All photographs at the end of each day were imported onto the device and basic metadata and keywords were applied using the great PhotoSmith app. Now as I type this PhotoSmith is uploading all my work into my Adobe Lightroom Library.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be uploaded the odd photo from the trip for you to enjoy but now the difficult part of the trip, processing the digital and medium format film photographs from the trip.
We have been blessed with good weather but it was only natural that at some point we would have a day of rain.
With heavy rain and full rivers and streams the waterfalls were in full flow. While the light was not conductive to landscape photography I took a number of pictures for reference.