Jul 30, 2010

Why the Silence?

Monsoons and all – we come to the very earliest possible beginnings of fall. Once Abq rains started, we just begin to sort of cool off here.
Not so – our intrepid knowledge quest! While Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3 are already on our desktop, it has been a period of hack-your-way thru new stuff, hoping videos gave you enough grounding – because books are JUST beginning to come out. Fortunately, it’s frosting on the cake vice new learning. Thank goodness for in depth CS3 and CS4 training. Same goes for LR2…

Full Range HDR Panos
With a penchant for full range HDR panos, its been a learning experience to get images into LR3, develop them through HDR Pro in CS5, HDR Tone them in the change from 32 to 16 bit formats…
The big bugaboo – its actually several fold. First, my Nikon D300 can Automatically Exposure Bracket up to 9 images. If I’ve slacked off and simply used the automaton approach, there are times when including too many images on the +EV side will create unwanted high lights. Second, settings in HDR Toning, particularly Edge Glow, can over emphasize high lights. Third, not properly using Corner Points near the blown high lights (BHL) can be a major pain…

Nevertheless, I can speak to a number of HDR Pano fine art images from several trips to Utah and Arizona.

Google Earth
GE 5.2 is full of new, exciting twists-and-turns. One is making Tours which convey a fine art viewpoint using digital photography. Another is creating unique views, timelines, and including your own precious HDR images.
While the learning curve can be steep for some, I am beginning to think perhaps I am on the right track. Now – with God’s help, maybe I can get over the hump rather soon… clearly, its been blocking my writing capacity!



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