Saturday, March 9, 2013

Continuous improvement process

Over the years, I've followed a number of photography blogs and forums. They are a great place to find inspiration, hints and tips. It was in venues such as those that I learned that my photographic output might be improved if I started shooting and processing raw files. So off I went to purchase Lightroom 2.

Before shooting raw, I did most of, if not all, of any post processing in Jasc's Paintshop Pro. Always amazed me how I could get that extra bit out of a photo shot as a jpeg. Straightening the horizon, correcting perspective, boosting the saturation a tad and tweaking the brightness and contrast. Minor tweaks mostly and the results? Wow! what an improvement.

And then I started processing raw files with Lightroom 2. Really loved how it allowed me to recover blown highlights, and bring a great deal more detail from out of the darker parts of a photo. I tweaked exposure, capture sharpness and maybe saturation and then pass a tiff file over to Paintshop Pro to finish up. Again. I'd see an improvement to the final photo.

Paintshop Pro was purchased by Corel. I tried a version, but preferred to stay with Jasc's last version. Lightroom came out with Version 3, but I didn't see enough of the people I followed get really excited about the improvements in the newer version, so I did not upgrade. Did learn a few new tweaks to my workflow with LR2 and PSPv9 to achieve better results in post-processing, so life was good.

Adobe released Lightroom 4 with a significant decrease in price. And I started reading in the blogs and forums I followed about how much better LR4 was to all previous versions. So I upgraded.

To be honest, I was not initially impressed, When applying my previous Lightroom workflow, I found I had to do a great deal more work to achieve similar results which would still pass to PSPv9 to finish.

I found a few tutorial on the web on how to better understand the Develop module. I purchased George Jardin's Lightroom Develop Module. Came across another tutorial series (Lightroom training : Lightroom Nuts and Bolts by Hal Schmitt ) that was free for a day. Needless to say I grabbed that one. Both great tutorials. George's more right-brain, creative, Schnmitt's much more left-brain, you can tell he trained military personnel. For me the two tutorials complimented each other perfectly. After watching and digesting both series, I was seeing actual improvements in my Lightroom processing.

Read a recent blog by Matt Kloskowski where he advised us about onOne Software offering their Perfect Effects 4 Free for downloading. He specifically mentioned the 'Tonal Contrast' effect as a 'must have' for any photographer. When Matt recommends something, I tend to pay attention, so I went and grabbed it. And played with it. And added to my post-processing workflow.

Another blog I follow, Fleeting Glimpses, is written by Rikk Flohr. Rikk has often commented how editing software continues to improve and because of that, we should re-visit old images to see if we can improve upon what we had previously done. So armed with better understanding of Lightroom 4 thanks to Jardine's & Schmitt's tutorials, the additional software recommended by Kloskowski, I put Flohr's suggestion to the test. The images that following show the progress and final results.

Raw file as shot in camera


LR2 Tweaked Raw exported to PSPv9


Final edit using LR2 and PSPv9


Taking the original Raw capture, processing it in Lightroom 4 with everything I've learned from the tutorials and then giving it that extra boost by applying Perfect Effects Tonal Contrast, and this is what results.
Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia
Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia

To me personally, I see a remarkable improvement. What say you?

Clicking on the above image will bring you to my RedBubble pages where one could, if they so desired, purchase the above image as a Greeting Card, Matted, Laminated, Mounted, Canvas or Framed Prints and Posters.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog, in my Guestbook or in the photo gallery.

Thanks for looking. And please stop by again

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Most Featured Image

Had planned on posting February's featured images on RedBubble by week, but there were just too many -- 38 images receiving a total of 59 Features. If anyone is interested in seeing all the featured images, you can find them in my February activity recap on RedBubble here

The reason for today's post is to announce that the below image -- a B&W photo of a memorial monument located in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal, Quebec, Canada -- became my first-ever image to have been featured **TEN** times on RedBubble when it was featured in the group 'Challenge Accepted' today.
Mary and Jesus
A New Beginning II


Clicking on the above image will bring you to my RedBubble pages where one could, if they so desired, purchase the above image as a Greeting Card, Matted, Laminated, Mounted, Canvas or Framed Prints and Posters.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog, in my Guestbook or in the photo gallery.

Thanks for looking. And please stop by again

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

RedBubble Features - February 2013 - week 1


A rarity!! A new blog post from me.

Most of my photography efforts of late have been focused on my participation on RedBubble. So I thought I might use my blog posts to highlight some my RedBubble activities. Today's post is about those images of mine that were featured in a group on RedBubble.

February 2012 has so far been an extraordinary month for features, so to keep this post from going on forever, it will only highlight those images featured from 1 February to 7 February.


________________________________________________

1940 Studebaker







1940 Studebaker

Featured in the group:
- 'Preserving History' on 1 February 2013











Portland Head Light












Portland Head Light

Featured in the group:
- 'Americas – Rural, Urban, Wild and Free' on 2 February 2013












Great Mormon butterfly







Great Mormon butterfly

Featured in the groups:
- 'Just Fun' on 2 February 2013
- 'Shutterbugs' on 2 February 2013,
- 'Insects, Bugs and Creepy Crawlies' on 4 February 2013,
- 'A World of EOS' on 4 February 2013
- 'The Wonder of Wings' on 6 February 2013.







Red Door - selective colour










Red Door - selective colour

Featured in the group:
- 'Windows and Doors Only' on 2 February 2013















Engine 1095







Engine 1095

Featured in the group:
- 'Old Things are Vintage' on 3 February 2013.











Chinese Lantens










Chinese Lantens

Featured in the groups:
- 'The World As We See It, or as we missed it' on 3 February 2013
- 'Low Light – Dark Background Photography' on 6 February 2013





Olf barn







Getting on in years

Featured in the group:
- 'The World As We See It , or as we missed it' on 3 February 2013.











Dog Roses










Dog Roses

Featured in the groups:
- The World As We See It, or as we missed it on 3 February 2013
- Gorgeous Flower Cards on 5 February 2013











The Pier







The Pier

Featured in the group:
- 'Perfect Harmonies' on 4 February 2013.











White Morpho butterfly










White Morpho II

Featured in the group:
- 'The World As We See It, or as we missed it' on 5 February 2013











Clipper butterfly









Clipper

Featured in the group:
- 'Closeups in Nature' on 6 February 2013.









Pemaquid Lighthouse










Pemaquid Lighthouse - watercolour

Featured in the group:
- 'Nautical ~ Waves of Joy' on 6 February 2013









River Erriff







River Erriff #1

Featured in the group:
- 'Nature’s Paintbrush' on 6 February 2013









ducks and geese








Who called this meeting, anyway?

Featured in the group:
- 'Canadiana' on 7 February 2013









Western Brook Pond







Western Brook Pond

Featured in the group:
- 'The World As We See It, or as we missed it' on 7 February 2013









1954 Pontiac Laurentian 2 door Hardtop







1954 Pontiac Laurentian 2 door Hardtop

Featured in the group:
- 'The World As We See It, or as we missed it' on 7 February 2013



________________________________________________


As I said at the start, February on RedBubble has been extraordinary. In just the first week, 16 images received 22 features. And there was a lot more activity in the remaining three weeks, but I'll leave that for future posts.

Clicking on any of the above images will bring you to my my RedBubble pages where one could, if they so desired, purchase the above images as Greeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters.

Please feel free to leave comments here on the blog, in my Guestbook or in the photo gallery.

Thanks for looking. And please stop by again