Archive for category Lightroom
On a cold and Gray New England Day …..
Posted by Peter in HDRI, Historical Location, Lightroom, Massachusetts, Photomatix on January 24th, 2009
…… I went back into my catalog of recent images I captured of the Concord River and Old North Bridge.
Normally when I merge to HDRi, I capture a range of exposures of +2,-2,+1, -1, 0EV. However for this set I only capture +1,-1,0 EV .
I was particularly concerned how this was going to render due to the snow cover (which is difficult to expose correctly without blowing out details in other parts of the image) and the fact that I was shooting mid afternoon on an overcast day.
Here are the +1, -1, 0 EV captures
After merging to HDR with Photomatix and while I was still in Photomatix, I applied a subtle tone mapping to avoid that “grunge” HDR look.
The tone mapped version was then imported into Lightroom. Once in Lightroom, I removed the blue cast that you can see in the snow, applied a local gradient to the sky to bring back some blue that was removed from the sky due to the previous step. I Then applied some tonal adjustments to the bridge to bring it more inline to what I saw. Lastly, I sharpened image and removed dust spots.
Resulting in this rendering of the Old North Bridge -
Single Image HDR continued ….
Posted by Peter in California, HDR Simulation, Lightroom, Matt Kloskowski, Photomatix, Photoshop, Uncategorized on October 3rd, 2008
Whenever I get a chance to visit the Napa Valley region of California. I try to stop at V. Sattui Winery located in St. Helena.
In addition to decent wines and a great little deli, V. Sattui Winery has a really neat stone Winery building which, to my eye, is a great photographic subject.
The first image, shown below, is the original jpg image, as captured and rendered with “in-camera” processing.
(click on images for a larger view)
I have a large number of older images, much like this one, that were originally shot and “in-camera” processed as jpg images. Many are really nice captures but lack the “punch” I can now achieve when processing a RAW capture. Since I have so many old jpg images in my catalog, I have been investigating options for getting more out of these images without having to revisit the original location and to capture the image again in RAW format.
In addition to learning the “proper” methods for rendering High Dynamic Range Images, I have been experimenting with ways to simulate HDR processing using a single jpg. (see previous post)
I presently use Adobe Lightroom as my Digital Asset Management system (DAM) and I typically start my process there. As for HDR software, my present choice is Photomatix Pro by HDRsoft. As noted in the comments section of my previous post, there are other options such as Media Chance for making this conversion directly from a jpg file. Once I get the chance and some “play money”, I plan on looking into those alternatives.
First Impressions – Lightroom 2.0
Posted by Peter in Lightroom, Scott Kelby, Terry White on August 1st, 2008
Adobe has made some significant enhancements with the second release of Photoshop Lightroom.
Though I haven’t had much time to try out all the new features. I am particularly impressed with the localized correction features. Due to this new feature, I expect less transferring to Photoshop to make minor localized tonal corrections.
Here is a quick example of what is now possible with just a couple of the new tools:
Here is an original image of Bode State Park California as captured.
(Click on images for larger rendering)
Next is a virtual copy created within Lightroom with localized corrections.
NOTE: I did not spend much time with this image. I was only checking out some of the new features, so I was not precise in the adjustments.
Two gradients were applied, one to the sky and one on the foreground. The eraser and Auto Masking were then used to remove the effects of the sky gradient adjustment from the hillside. Localized saturation to the “yellow” brush was then applied. I found this new set of tools easy to use, though the rendering lagged more than I liked and will need some getting use to ( Windows Vista 32 Bit, 2.8 ghz Intel Dual Core with 4G RAM).
As for Development Presets – I found that all the presets in my DEVELOP Module work as before. As did the print templates in the PRINT Module, including those that I created and have been distributing.
The vignetting “after crop” is also a new feature that is welcomed.
Another new feature within the PRINT Module is the ability to print to a jpeg file(s).
Let’s say you have a client who wants a rendering of how a image may looked framed or with an edge effect. With my Print Templates and the new print to file feature to create a jpeg rendering you can now share the various scenarios via e-mail or web posting.
Here are examples of jpeg outputs -
Recommended reviews -
To get detailed insight from the experts checkout Scott Kelby’s Blog and Terry White’s Blog entries.
Terry White has a really good breakdown of all the new features and has provided a nice Keyboard shortcut listing for the new localized corrections.
Adobe Lightroom 2.0 Released
Posted by Peter in Lightroom, Scott Kelby on July 29th, 2008
2.0
Adobe has just released Lightroom 2.0. Those who have followed this blog know that I use and highly recommend Lightroom for global post processing of my images.
Scott Kelby of Photoshop Insider has a detailed blog entry on the various upgrade features. I suspect that with these new features, I will find less need to visit Photoshop to finalize my images.
Once I install the new release, I will test out my Print templates, presets and update this blog to let you know how they work under Lr 2.0.
Cape Disappointment and more .. take 2 or is that take 3 ?
Based on a suggestion of a friend, I decided to take another look at the illusion I was trying to create in the previous post. What I was trying to imply within the second image ( see previous post), was an illusion of a pending storm or a storm that had just left the area.
The suggestion was to make the grass area more pronounced as in the first image, while leaving the sky as is.
Since I did all the processing between Photomatix and Lightroom and neither allow the merging of parts of an image via masking, I had to export copies into Photoshop.
Using a mask, the land area was taken from the first image, some tonal adjustments, sky from the second image and then a gradient was applied to the mask over the ocean area.
Here is the next step in my image evolution -
Also while I’m at revisiting my work, based on a comment posted on the “Blue on Blue” post, I also revisited that image, re cropped and made minor highlight adjustments (click on image for larger view)
here is a similar cropped non HDR merge image for comparison
Thanks for the critiques and comments.
…………”an old dog CAN learn new tricks”
Thanks !
