Rave - Strong, Intuitive Tone Mapping Tools in CS4

New tools in Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 are real time savers.  I'm thinking about Tone Mapping with Clipping Points, Targeted Adjustment Tools, and the Adjustments Panel.

CS4 Adjustments Curves Clipping Point
This image shows red channel clipping.  After checking Show Clipping, by moving White Point slider to the left, I deliberately over clipped the area.
When real clipping was set to 235, underlying red and orange arch colors were more dramatic.  217 blew out some of the red channel.

What is Tone Mapping?
It’s how to look at an image and "listen" to it; how changes to the delicate matrix of light and shadow can transform drama and mood in the meaning of an image; how to sculpt perspective with light and contrast; and how to imagine gorgeous color and tonal changes to best express your vision.
Tone refers to the level of brightness.  Common terms describing tonal values are shadow, mid tone, and highlight brightness categories.
Contrast - simply put, contrast is difference between tonal values.  The greater the difference in brightness between tonal regions, the more contrast.
Clipping – tonal values recorded as either total black or total white.
So, let’s create a simple workflow which listens to our need for speed and accuracy as we Tone Map images?

Clipping Points
Our first step is to use Clipping Points of Curves dialog to set neutral Highlights and Shadows.  In CS4, click Adjustments panel, open Curves dialog, then click on the Expanded View list (upper right).  Check the 5th item Show Clipping for Black/White Points.  I know; it was a little easier to find in CS3 - you simply checked a Show Clipping box.
The horizontal histogram scale has two triangular points; on the left, the Black point, on the right, the White point.  When you move either point towards the middle, your image visually changes to begin showing when global clipping occurs.  This clipping image may have up to six colors, primary RGB or secondary CYM. 
You just decide when clipping starts and how much, if any, you want as you neutralize shadows and highlights.




Targeted Adjustment Tool
But, we're not done quite yet… let's move to the talented, localized Targeted Adjustment Tool!
First, we must warn you; this tool doesn't work as a single feature.  Rather, it works on Curves, Hue, Saturation, Lightness, and Black-and-White Adjustments.  Because it is selective, it only changes these effects for colors under the cursor.  WOW... that's more than a triple threat!
The icon for the TAT tool is a hand with forefinger pointing upward.  Next to the forefinger is a double headed arrow; it suggests you move the cursor up-and-down to independently modify contrast (Curves).  For color, intensity, and brightness, the double headed arrow is horizontal; move the cursor right-or-left (Hue, Saturation, Lightness, and Black-and-White). 
As you move the cursor, contrast or color may change - becoming stronger or weaker.  In HSL and B/W situations, one or more of the color sliders may react to your cursor motion.  This indicates more than one color is involved under the cursor.

Most of this discussion deals with CS4; the Lightroom 2 TAT tool icon performs the same functions.

Rant - Textbooks with Poor Indexing Using Different Terminology
While Clipping Point and TAT aren't gorgeous glamour tools, their early workflow usage is quite important.  Both tools are sort of buried in several functions of the Adjustments panel.
When asked about upgrading Photoshop, one of my tenant's is, "Get the best text to explain the complexity of your brave New World."  By best, I mean a text which clearly and explicitly explains where and how Adobe has adapted each of the new features.  I do not mean a users manual.
I have a Photoshop library of detailed works from Fraser (CS3), Kelby (LR2), Eismann  (CS3), and Evening (CS4).  Unfortunately, a methodical, by item approach to reporting Photoshop doesn't naturally group powerful tools with a similar, yet pervasive function. 
Some books contained a full index; Evening clearly didn't think to carefully guide you with a complete, in-depth index.  Some books treated these tools in more depth than others.  Some writers used English with both greater clarity and higher precision...
The result can be a lot of time-consuming digging.

For advanced Photoshop users who seek more than a ‘cook book’ approach to learning new and unique workflow, I suggest, if possible, you preview potential library entries prior to buying.  Make sure your new addition meets all your criteria for a new, exciting learning path.

Meanwhile, why not take a look at Clipping Points and TAT tools to smoothly speed your workflow!
Enjoy...

Bisti : Small Scale

Pharaoh’s Saddle
©Joe Bridwell
Most geologists learn to look both at the land where they're walking as well as at their surroundings. This lifelong habit provides so much incredible delight in the multi-faceted Bisti.
Delicate strata of interleaved white and gold; sandstone caps; dark broken rock fragments from nearby; all seem to complement the Sun's stark shadow. Just components in water's consummate artistry as it's carved such Bisti microcosms...

Surreal, Ever-Changing Character
The Bisti is an amalgam of characters - almost like a stage play. Walk here and see this character; walk there and see a completely different character. So, just simply finding your true Bisti can be a challenge.
When you add ever changing light, you begin to have time's very slow kaleidoscope effect. All right, you ask, "What does kaleidoscope effect mean?"
Practically speaking, it's not a difficult task to see each of the Bisti's spatial characters. Just get out there, walk around, and remember where you went.
Luckily speaking, it is a rather difficult task to find the Bisti's enhanced character as light changes. Of course, this truism represents any other natural wonder.

Exploration vs. Artistry
To figure out where interesting hoodoos are, you need to trek the Bisti during daylight. Be careful; it can be incredibly hot in the summer. Beyond that, you need to imagine what each of these spectacular sights might look like under specific, yet differing lighting conditions.
To become a Bisti artist, you need to know how to get where you want to be either before sunrise or near sunset. Magic Hour, that hour around dawn and dusk, may require you to shoot after the Sun's gone down. In either case, the artistry lies in the often spectacular combination of right light and surreal hoodoo.

But... this process offers an artist's strongest hope. Such persistent choices increase your lucky odds. Such choices put you in the artistic position of images.

Bisti Treks
Click to see other Bisti Images
Oh My…!
Surreal
Sphinx
Solitude

Enjoy…

Proud CS4 Owner – Breakin’ It In

I ain’t no April Fool…

But, I have just spent the last several hours installing Adobe Photoshop CS4. The update is on a DVD; 20 minutes to upgrade. CS4 comes with Adobe Camera Raw 5 …to update from DVD to present configuration, you will need another 123 Mb including ACR 5.3. Fortunately, it can be an automatic download of ~ 6 minutes (industrial Comcast). Simply ask CS4 to update software and sit back til it’s done…

CS4 Setup

Then there’s setup for your prior choices of workflow. For example, bringing in old actions and preferences. I’ve learned to set aside these special features in subfolders for each Photoshop version. Then, its simply a matter of renaming those folders and adding them in the proper place for CS4.

Learning the Ropes...

CS4 has a What’s New in CS4 dropdown menu. It turns new menu features blue so you can quickly go thru to get acclimated. Then, you find Photoshop Online in the Help menu; it provides you some 45 minutes of Julianne Kost _Adobe Evangelist_ showing Intelligent Scaling, Alignment, Lightroom 2, Adjustments and Masks panels, ACR 5, GPU Acceleration, and finally, Bridge in 6 remarkable videos.

Slaver - Saliva running from the mouth: drivel, drool, salivation, slaver.

View of Adobe’s Available Time-Saver (Not Slaver) Videos

Now, why would I use that particular term…

Because, a quick review of these Flash Videos quickly leads you to the meat of new CS4 workflow! Beyond that, their intro statement said you could get the same workflow done in HALF the normal time. AND, sharply reduce your mouse travel… WOW!!!

Then I saw Julianne take 3 high dynamic range exposures and auto-blend them in CS4 – producing a balanced HDR image. Unfortunately, she did not take them to the level of additional Tone Mapping, but such workflow is way simple compared to the old Photomatix approach.

… simply didn’t take long before I was slavering!

Julianne’s other cogent tips (see list above) are quickly presented, well ordered, and highly provocative. It would make a very length blog post to enumerate each one in serious detail so you could even begin to get them at your digital finger tips…

I would recommend viewing each of these videos several times, taking extensive notes, then inculcating these exciting concepts in your own substantially improved workflow.

So, What’s Your Digital Future?

I’ve talked to several members of ELCC who are considering migration to CS4. My advice – if you can workflow in half the time, with much less mouse movement, and have better image control - then what are you waiting for? Take a look at these videos, get your copy onboard and running, and begin some marvelous adventures in your own photography.

Enjoy…

1st Impressions ~ Raw Workflow - P II

Adjustments panel with favorite Curves, Vibrance, HSL, Gradient, and Adjustment Layer Clipping Mode controls underlined.  These controls perform 90% of my raw workflow.

We continue our examination of Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers by Martin Evening.

Why Shoot Raw?
In Real World Camera Raw for CS4, Fraser and Schewe ask and answer this important question.  When shooting raw, you get to control scene interpretation.  With raw, the only on-camera settings that have an effect on captured pixels are ISO speed, shutter speed, and aperture.
Everything else is under your control when you convert the raw file.  You can reinterpret the white balance, color metric rendering, tonal response, and detail rendition (sharpening and noise reduction) with a great deal of freedom.  Within limits of exposure and linear capture, you can even reinterpret the basic exposure itself, resetting white and black points.
In essence, you’ve captured everything the camera can deliver.  So, you have much greater freedom in shaping overall tone and contrast for the final image.  For me, this freedom translates to a big question,
"What is an optimum workflow to properly Tone Map the final product... be it HDR, panorama, or just a single provocative image."

Adjustment Panel
Camera Raw 4.6, commonly associated with Photoshop CS3, has eight sub panels in the Adjustment panel.  These workhorse panels are Basic, Tone Curve, Detail, and HSL.  You can mess with everything from white balance to sharpening and noise reduction - such adjustments become the heart of your workflow.  The same panel is available in Camera Raw 5.3 for CS4; its in Camera Raw’s tools and the new Adjustments Panel where Tone Mapping really becomes exciting and your workflow really takes off...  I explicitly refer to non-destructive local tools Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter.

Kelby's Lightroom 2 Develop Module Workflow
The Develop panel in Lightroom 2 has several major elements.  Basic, Tone Curve, HSL/Color/Grayscale, Split Toning, Detail, Vignettes, and Camera Calibration comprise the most commonly used sequence of major development elements.  This particular order is specified in Lightroom 2’s Develop Module.  Kelby reviews each successive element in The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 book for digital photographers in a sequential workflow.
I find Basic, Tone Curve, HSL/Color/Grayscale, Detail (Sharpening and Noise Reduction), and Camera Calibration my workhorses for raw development, converting me to the more standard pro’s view that some 80% of my development work can be done in Lightroom.  Kelby advocates 90% or more...

From this viewpoint, I approached Evening’s Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers seeking the simplest workflow to quickly enhance my already full plate.  What additional factors do I need to learn to make CS4 quickly a part of an already more encompassing workflow?

Evening’s CS4 Raw Workflow Editing
Sharpening
During capture, image sharpness can be loss to optic quality, image resolving ability of camera sensor, and the anti-aliasing filter which covers the sensor.  Captured images can be less sharp than they should be.
Capture sharpening is one of the first things you do to an image before you start retouching.  If you shoot raw, capture sharpening must be done either in the raw processing program (Lightroom 2, Bridge CS4) or afterwards in Photoshop.  With advent of Camera Raw 4.1 (CS3), new sharpening controls rewrote the rules completely.  Now, it makes sense to do capture sharpening at the raw processing stage before you open images in Photoshop.
The Detail panel springs from work of Bruce Fraser in Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop CS2.  With its inclusion, both Lightroom 2 and Adobe Camera Raw 5.3 are at the forefront of sharpening.
Take note - most of the rest of the workflow we describe is in Photoshop in the Adjustments panel.  In order to proceed from sharpening to tone mapping, one needs to involve Bridge and Photoshop.  This is not the most efficient workflow method.
In Camera Raw 5.3, Bridge CS4 nests Sharpening and Noise Reduction in a separate Detail panel.  Since I usually shoot landscapes, I will apply the sharpening landscapes preset to the raw file in Lightroom 2.

Adjustments Panel controls
There are several advantages to the adjustment layer approach:
1.    Adjustment layers are not permanent.  If you want to undo an adjustment or readjust settings, you can do so at any time!
2.    Adjustments remain 'dynamic'.
3.    Adjustments can be masked; apply the associated layer mask and refine using the Masking Panel.
4.    Best of all, adjustment layers are no longer restricted to a modal state (you have to double-click the layer first to access adjustment controls).
You have the potential to quickly access adjustment layer settings anytime you wish.  If you click on an adjustment layer, you can paint on the layer mask, adjust layer opacity and blending options, with full access to adjustment controls.
Immediately beneath iconic options, the Adjustments Presets list can be quite helpful.

Are Curves ALL You Need?
"I'm a firm believer in trying to make Photoshop as simple as possible.  With 22 items listed in the Image Adjustments Menu, you can achieve almost all image adjustments you need by using just Curves and Hue/Saturation."

A. Sample image to set black point. B. Sample image to set gray point. C. Sample image to set white point. D. Edit points to modify curve. E. Draw to modify curve. F. Curves type drop-down menu. G. Set black point. H. Set gray point. I. Set white point. J. Show clipping. (See the Finger; it’s our elusive Targeted Adjustment Tool.)

Masks Panel controls

Mask Preview, Density Slider, Feather Slider, Convert Master Selection, Apply Mask the Layer, Enable/Disable Mask, Pixel Mask Mode, Vector Mask Mode, Refine Mask Edges, Make a Color Range Selection, and Invert the Mask.

Adjustment layers are added to the layer stack with a pixel mask attached.  The density slider adjusts the mask density (opacity).  The feather slider softens the mask edges.  The color range button let you make selections based on colors in your image.  You can select colors to add or subtract from color range selection and see results applied directly as a mask.  The faint circle on the bottom left converts a mask to a selection.  The triangle applies a mask to the layer. 
Last, but not least, the vector mask button (upper right) provides surprising strength.  A vector mask is just like an image layer mask, except the mask is described using a vector path.  The mask can be edited using the pen path or shape tools.  It is resolution independent.  It can be transformed or scaled in size without any loss in quality. 
Color Range - when I was a boy, CS Forester wrote the Hornblower series.  Horatio Hornblower entered the British Navy as midshipmen, finally mustering out as Commodore of the Fleet.  In days of sailing frigates and ships of the line, many a cold dawn watch occurred at the fore top mask.
I'm reminded of this vivid history when I watch Martin Evening take a picture of a sailing ship, use Color Range to select the delicate intricacies of mast and rigging, make a Color Range mask, then skillfully change the azure sky background to a more passionate, cloudy sky.  This particularly striking example shows that a Color Range mask can handle incredibly complex images, create a superb mask, and elevate your photography to a new plane.

Conclusions...
The big advances in CS4 are the Adjustments and Masks panels!  It's like one-stop shopping; instead of going to many dialog boxes, these panels immensely speed your workflow.  Unfortunately, if you prefer sharpening and don't have Lightroom 2, the combination of Bridge and CS4 put sharpening tools in Adobe Camera Raw whereas the rest of this workflow is in CS4.
Evening does touch on Lightroom.  But, he wants to present Bridge and CS4 as a package.  Yet, he also uses Lightroom 2 as his search database for all photos. I do find his examples to offer additional insight into CS4 image processing.  And, I anticipate the Schewe and Evening Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers – Ultimate Workshop will emphasize advanced workflow solutions.

As for me, I plan to use Lightroom to for pre-development, then use the Adjustments and Masks panel in CS4 for the fine, intricate steps to finalize my images.
My apologies for a longer than normal blog entry; it seemed important to illustrate the pros and cons, then reduce workflow to its simplest elements...
Enjoy...

Ancient Outdoor Museums…

A Pueblo III Anasazi Ruin

©Joe Bridwell

The Anasazi knew an end was near; this lonely, hard-to-access ruin is one of the most protected of final days. Almost hidden in a lonely, canyon-cut mesa, the setting Sun will quickly remove warmth as night's cold arrows waft up from the canyon below.

Seeking such surreal loneliness of red rock beauty suggests the Anasazi were truly world-class climbers. Somehow, they explored some of the most distant southwestern places in a never ending quest for food and safety. When a haven was found, they built isolated rooms which provided warmth and protection - always as if their concern for a right angle wall was at odds with nearby cliffs. Such ruins are now their only enduring legacy.

Some of the most scenic ruins and arches occur in southern Utah backcountry. One, the second largest arch on the planet, requires a 5 mile round-trip, sunset's direct light to be South 20° West, standing in the middle of a creek for the optimum shot, and trekking 2 miles back before 300 feet of climb (part of it sandy) to arrive at the car after dark.

Most of these often rather quaint sites aren't on any main thoroughfare. Rather, they're down some long dirt road where you park your car, put on your pack, and trek even farther into nature's wilderness. Gear, wading shoes, layers of clothing, batteries, water, protein... all contribute to a distinct sense of excitement and energy expenditure.

Yesterday's Landscape Photography

In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, landscape photography flourished albeit with huge heavy cameras and Velvia film. With less restriction on where you could set up the camera, several professional reputations were made as incredible images later adorned impeccable coffee table books of the Southwest.

Today's Digital Photography

In the last few years, digital cameras and high dynamic range imaging are transforming landscape photography to a more highly defined color range.

To capture the full range of enchanting dawn or dusk light which can illuminate ruins, arches, and other provocative landscape features, digital photography needs additional technical capability. High dynamic range imaging (HDR), automatic exposure bracketing (some cameras can provide nine bracketed shots), a panoramic head, and a sturdy tripod creates such a venue.

If we marry a digital camera and a GPS device, which can tell you where you are to within 10 feet anywhere on the planet's surface 24x7, you can essentially trek to any distant site to capture dusk, then return after dark.

One Way to Capture and Evaluate Provocative Landscape Images

But still, it takes several more definitive steps to begin to approach impeccable books... An expedition, to create successful images, needs several attributes:

1. A low noise, high ISO digital camera with sturdy tripod.

2. Software such as Garmin's Mapsource to pre-construct routes into the difficult-to-attain sites.

3. An intelligent GPS unit to carefully help secure an after-dark return.

4. Software such as Lightroom 2 to process multiple HDR images in the same orientation (and sets of images if a panorama).

5. Software such as Photoshop CS4 to:

    a. Build HDR images

    b. Merge results to panorama

And Then, Naturally, There's the Light...

Lest we forget... the most enchanting light is usually near sunset. So, you trek to the scene mid-afternoon, scope the best place for creating an exotic shot, then wait for just the right light. For a busy few minutes, you shoot landscape and portrait images in HDR, rotating your camera on the panoramic head if required.

In the end, you return to the studio. All those carefully captured images are processed, breathtaking results are finalized... Sometimes you still can't even believe the inspiring beauty both captured then carefully revealed - although you really were just there yourself!

Such incredulous 'open museums', ancient venues, silence, and beauty... bring them back to share with those who can't make such treks!

Enjoy...

The Future of HDR - II

Whether its DVDs, videos, or books – High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is flourishing with Lightroom 2 (LR) and Photoshop CS4(PS).

The authors shown above

John Doogan FNZIPP (and Adobe Ambassador),

Ben Willmore (HDR & Beyond), and

Matt Kloskowski NAPP (DVD)

take different approaches.

Last Thursday’s Future of HDR was prelude to a central question, “Where and how will our future growth proceed in digital photography as we use better cameras to provide HDR images which represent what our eye actually saw?”

What Does Each Approach Offer?

While I have not seen Kloskowski’s HDR DVD, I have seen his Lightroom DVD. His approach is simple; a nuts and bolts use of Lightroom rather than enhanced tool application. I presume he uses Photomatix for HDR the same way. I can’t speak to his tone mapping approach.

Ben Willmore briefly touched on his HDR approach in two short CS3 videos with Bert Monroy. The first shows how to use CS3 to Merge to HDR to align and create an initial image. The second uses CS3 brightness and other advanced masking tools (curves) to more carefully tone map images. He has a book out next month entitled HDR and Beyond with CS4.

John Doogan’s videos spend 2 hours skillfully showing how to use several HDR approaches. In New and Improved Adobe Photomerge and Merge to HDR in Photoshop CS4, he uses Lightroom to Merge to HDR, then either applies CS4 layer adjustments or Lightroom nondestructive graduated filters or local adjustment brushes to enhance and add subtle changes to his HDR images. As a nature photographer, I enjoyed his Landscape Photographers Guide to Lightroom and CS4. Both can be viewed on video by clicking on each title below.

My HDR Experience

I began using HDR in October, 2007. For perspective, that was 6 months after the Photoshop CS3 release. At that time, few reviews suggested use of CS3 and its HDR capabilities. Rather, Photomatix Pro was hero from that day.

As I’ve worked with CS3 and Photomatix, one interesting reaction has been, “That image seems to be ‘science-fiction’ – meaning, it’s over done.” Hindsight, centered around shooting Magic Hour shots, that period between dawn and dusk, suggests HDR should be approached carefully with Photomatix. Use of Detail Enhancer (DE) provides a histogram which rarely seems to fit the general histogram shape from the initial capture image. On the other hand, Tone Compressor (TC) seems to be more consistent; it maintains similar histogram configurations. While DE has numerous knobs and dials for tone mapping, TC only has half that amount.

When you think of dodging and burning in CS3 as well as exciting new graduated filter and adjustment brushes in Lightroom 2 (and CS4) ~ that impressive tone mapping list shows Photomatix appearing to strongly lag behind. Moreover, those local nondestructive Adobe Camera Raw 5.x brushes allow us to swiftly add subtle clipping, recovery, fill light, shadows, brightness, clarity, vibrance, sharpness, auto align, auto blend, etc.

When compared to combinations of various tools used in tone mapping from Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 – the few global Photomatix knobs and dials, which only treat a global image, seem to become minor.

Brief Historical Perspective

So, what can we learn by perusing noted experts and their present approaches to HDR?

HDR began to appear through tutorials from different photographers. Early on it was Photomatix, but in 2008, Bridge and CS3 became prevalent. With release of LR2 in September, 2008 and CS4, October, 2008, Adobe Camera Raw, the underpinning of both, had become an active local brush adjustment environment. Workflow steps taking hours are reduced to 10s of minutes.

Now, HDR found a new home with more subtle nuances to its plethora of image corrections. I think advent of Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 as a combo puts us in a better tone mapping situation to softly, yet persistently enhance HDR. Several people are using Merge to HDR from Lightroom. Then they go on to use the sophistication of LR/PS. Of course, you will want to find your ‘guru’ or gurus’ and follow them… Adobe eSeminars provides you both HDR and additional topics.

As you become facile in use of various combo brushes, you will produce subtle, yet evocative HDR images – eschewing that old paradigm – HDR ‘science fiction’. And, should you be interested, we think you may become leaders in helping judges, sometimes rutted in tradition, widen their horizons…

Where Few Men Have Gone Before…

For me, CS4 is definitely on the near horizon; specifically because of some of the intricate steps Doogan’s 2 videos showed me - which work only with LR and CS4. With local nondestructive tools applied to different segments of an HDR image, we suggest a pen tablet for precision in advanced tone map modifications.

Doogan
HDR
Landscapes
Willmore
HDR I
HDR II
HDR and Beyond
Klowkowski
HDR DVD
Kelby
Lightroom 2 Book (p. 262-267)
Revell
HDR Tutorials
Adobe eSeminars OnDemand
Various HDR and CS4 Topics

Nature's Old Men...

Old Man's Face

©Joe Bridwell

"I love the place (Four Corners)," Tony Hillerman wrote of vast lands that span the northeast corner of Arizona and straddle borders of New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. "I need only drive west from Shiprock into that great emptiness to feel my spirit lift."

One of my friends saw an earlier version of this image and wrote me, "Did you see the face in the rock of an old man with a beard; it looks like he is holding a teddy bear."

When I looked again, his face, somewhat crushed, with broken nose askew, and almost loosing a left eye beneath a stately Tam-o-Shanter, seemed to add such simple strength and a quizzical, wrinkled charm to distant Mt Taylor.  Is he a guardian of such mountain beauty?  In Anasazi lore, the teddy bear might really have been a treasured child. 

Keeper of the Gate

©Joe Bridwell

Later, around a distant corner, this splendid, gnarled old tree, guarding a shrine up the road, might have been equally at home in legend’s ancient Sherwood Forest.  Could Coronado’s Conquistadores have ridden under this majestic tree, searching for Seven Cities of Gold?

Somehow, this old man and Robin Hood’s tree, guarding our past in variable tone poems, seem to speak together, "Age and grace are one - the same."  Both nature’s tree and broken rock face are wrinkled; both have survived the millennia; and each, in their unique way, is testament to age and simplicity.  Softly painting tree and face bring out their enduring longevity.

From Anasazi times, elders have gone to ground – found a quite place to pass their later years.
Our prayers are with them all…

The Future of HDR...

Credit: John Doogan, FNZIPP

With advent of Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4, new Tone Mapping twists are beginning to be applied to high dynamic range (HDR). An exhaustive Google search provide only a few tutorials; nevertheless, they were quite illuminating. John Doogan, Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, and Ben Willmore each have a new direction in HDR. Doogan works with LR2 and CS4; Kelby and Kloskowski work with Lightroom 2; Willmore likes some of the advanced masking tools in CS4 (his book HDR and Beyond in CS4 is available in March).

Regardless of how the cookie crumbles, one can choose either Photomatix or Lightroom and Photoshop to assemble a 32-bit HDR. After converting to a 16-bit tiff file, paths and workflow techniques differ. Doogan shows both CS4 and LR2 working paths. Kelby and Willmore proceed to use Camera Raw sliders for global changes. Then, techniques differ for localized changes. Personally, I prefer nondestructive local adjustment brush changes - either in Lightroom or CS4 - based on Adobe Camera Raw 5.3.

To get this sense of future direction for HDR, Doogan’s videos bring LR2 and CS4 to life. Kelby has six pages in his new Lightroom book describing the process. You can either buy a DVD or take online training to watch Kloskowski's HDR video. You can watch 2 Willmore videos free or buy his upcoming book.

While many people use Photomatix to assemble HDR images, opinions differ about post process Tone Mapping. Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 both depend upon Adobe Camera Raw 5.3 for nondestructive global and local tool packages. CS4 adds the remarkable facility for masking.

Future Directions in HDR…

Now that we have ‘honking’ CS4 subtle adjustment brushes available - a truly remarkable masking tool - it is my anticipation we may see more HDR tutorials which step beyond the ‘Photomatix uber alles (German for over all)’ HDR paradigm. So, I began an advanced Google search for today's viewpoints and projects…

I’ve actually seen a book and several free video examples which preach new paths, similar to our LR2 path proposed in prior workflows. You ask, “What paths…?”

Paths the Pro’s Use…

John Doogan, FNZIPP, Adobe evangelist, and Adobe beta tester, lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Last night, after watching Eric Jones present a tantalizing Alternatives to HDR workflow at Enchanted Lens Camera Club, I found Doogan’s Landscape Photographer’s Guide to Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, watched the 80 minute video, and felt like I witnessed a Revolution…

Doogan showed both Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2 performing the same Auto-Align and Auto-Blend steps as well as more refined interactions between LR2 and CS4 in each separate piece of software. Granted he was doing broad brush landscape tone mapping – but, I was able to see far enough into CS4 to know it’s clearly in my future. In effect, he indicated, “While CS4 can do more than the present LR2, some of its steps are clunky compared to the more streamlined LR2.” Then, he showed how LR2 reduced his first cut development and tone mapping time by ~ 30% - so, even though he has CS4, his total time in LR2 now approaches 90%!

For those interested in tone mapping the future thru CS4, I commend Doogan. I would also suggest perhaps you take a careful look at some other free tutorials on Adobe’s eSeminars website.

Landscapes:http://pacific.adobe.acrobat.com/p74392052/
HDR:http://pacific.adobe.acrobat.com/p59269932/

*John Doogan is a commercial photographer and digital retoucher from Christchurch. He has been using photoshop since the mid 1990s. John is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography, an Adobe Ambassador and a software beta tester for Adobe Photographic software. He has a particular interest in landscape photography, and has won the NZIPP Landscape Photographer of the Year three times.

Scott Kelby, National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) President, discusses HDR from a different view - in Lightroom 2, HDR images can go straight from Lightroom to Photoshop's Merge to HDR feature. The result is a 32-bit file. Choose Image, Mode, 16 Bits per Channel. The HDR conversion dialog appears. Choose Local Adaptation. You've finally started to add the HDR look. Ctrl-Shift-S opens a save dialog box, you name the photo, then save as a tif file.

Now, open the tif in Photoshop which opens the Camera Raw menu. In CS4, development sliders are like Lightroom 2. Now, you're back to familiar ground.

Kelby describes the use of sliders to Tone Map. Now, it's time to get that file back into Lightroom. Click and drag the file into the same folder where your original bracketed photos are stored. In Lightroom's folder panel (Library module) choose Synchronize Folder. The dialog says you're importing one new photo (finished HDR you drug into the folder).

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 book for Digital Photographers, ©2009, Scott Kelby, p. 262-267.

Matt Kloskowski, NAPP Educator, has released an HDR video. It advocates minimal use of Photomatix as a tone mapping tool; rather, Photomatix is great at Assembling the initial file. Matt is great at subtle tool masks and usage in Photoshop. I haven’t seen it, but would like too…

http://www.kelbytraining.com/player/index.html#150

Ben Willmore has 2 free videos with Bert Monroy at Pixel Perfect. The first discusses how Photomatix can leave uneven interpretations from Tone Mapping. The second discusses intricacies of using subtle masks in CS3 to emphasize or de-emphasize more refined aspects of HDR capture. I find this video interesting, simply because it shows a somewhat more limited approach to local tone mapping in HDR.

Part I: http://revision3.com/pixelperfect/hdr/
Part II: http://revision3.com/pixelperfect/hdrpartii/

Willmore shows how he fashioned the Cover for his new book HDR and Beyond in Photoshop CS4…

High dynamic range (HDR) imaging uses multiple exposures of the same scene to create a single image with a huge range of values between light and dark areas of a photograph. It is an extremely popular and ever-growing niche of photography; a search for "HDR" at Flickr results in over 975,000 uploaded images.

In this book by noted photographer and popular digital imaging expert Ben Willmore, you'll learn the best practices for the entire process: from image capture through tone mapping and output. You'll learn how to create stunning HDR images...and you'll go beyond those "basic" techniques to learn exactly how Ben creates his own trademark HDR images, which have a slightly surreal and painterly quality to them. Equally instructive and beautiful, HDR and Beyond will teach and inspire you to create stunning HDR images! Amazon Product Description.

http://www.amazon.com/HDR-Beyond-Adobe-Photoshop-CS4/dp/0321617029/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234901420&sr=1-1

Perhaps these examples can broaden our horizons. For me, use of Camera Raw 5.3’s tools have both sped up my workflow and provided rich, yet natural appearing fine art. And, it matters little whether it’s Lightroom or Photoshop which acts as my final localized brush Tone Mapping vehicle.

Take a look at a more in-depth Lightroom 2 HDR Tone Mapping workflow here.

Enjoy...

Bosque Delight

Serendipity

©Joe Bridwell
Sandhill Cranes seek night’s peace as they land and settle in for dark. Our result is a soft, cloud capped sunset where cranes seem to stand silhouetted in orange bas relief… The Bosque del Apache is world famous for such views.
Nikon D300, 24-105, 105 mm, iso 200, f6.3, 1/50, 1/100, 1/25 ~ 14-bit
We captured 3 HDR raw files three minutes after sunset, then processed in Photomatix and Lightroom 2.

Camera v Eye
Our eye sees much better than a digital camera. We instantly record all nuances in a scene, yet our camera only captures a limited portion of scene. When we automatic exposure bracket, we capture a range of contrasting light which is called high dynamic range HDR. With software, our computer can ‘add’ these images together to produce an approximation of what our eye saw.

Photomatix
Most digital HDR shooters use Photomatix Pro. It adds two images together, then asks you to Tone Map. There are 2 variants; Detail Enhancer (DE) and Tone Compressor (TC).
This is a Magic Hour shot (that hour around dawn and dusk); strong dark foreground and light sky. Of course, its complicated by water’s reflection – but it’s this enclosing reflection which adds so much to the sandhill’s charm.

When one compares histograms, Detail Enhancer gives one HDR histogram profile – this profile is not in concert with the 0EV manual capture histogram from the 1st HDR image. Basically, DE moves the original histogram capture from Shadows to Lights – seeming to blow out the HDR compilation.
Tone Compressor gives a histogram pattern similar to 0EV capture.



We save the 32 bit TC file as a 16 bit tif for further clarification in Lightroom.

Photomatix provides global controls for changing luminosity, tone, and other parameters. Because subtle light variations can decidedly enhance this HDR image without making it ‘science fiction’ in appearance, we will only take the TC product and more subtly tone map it in Lightroom.

Lightroom 2
Lightroom 2 allows local brush control on restoring the resulting HDR image to what our memory saw by eye.
We begin by making Virtual Copies of our HDR tif file (Ctrl-‘) – to allow future growth. Each change we wish to make in Lightroom becomes its own slightly improved baby; for me, my mind changes over time and software improves over time, so this is a good workflow.
With our Tone Compressed file, we change exposure then added clarity and virbance using Lightroom sliders in the 1st copy. Copy 2 allows us to make Medium Contrast using Tone Curves. Copy 3 lets us work with graduated filters. Copy 4 lets us try to reduce bird motion caused by the time difference in taking individual HDR images using the local adjustment brush. This last step is like burning in the shadows left when birds move their heads in search of food. Copy 5 lets us sharpen the result.

Final Image
After we complete Lightroom's Develop module steps, we return to the Library Module and Export the ‘final’ image as both a DNG and jpg file. Meanwhile, our Catalog contains all history changes for each copy. Both files are placed in a laptop portable Catalog we used for this particular project development.

We developed this HDR workflow approach based on knowledge of how histograms reflect the reality of capture, what different global tone mapping tools might or might not do, and the marvelous precision attained with new local, nondestructive brush tools in Lightroom. We executed our local Tone Mapping changes on a Wacom Pen Tablet using current upwardly mobile software tools – which we expect to only improve.
Enjoy…

CD Covers

Painted Hand Ruin
©Joe Bridwell
Some of our Four Corners heritage springs from Ancient Anasazi habitations. The inset is Painted Hand ruin in sw Colorado. Anasazi inhabited the area from 700-1300 AD. Often, their protective towers sat atop a canyon wall, giving wide view.

Could such ruins help create a provocative CD cover and generate an appealing, marketing tool from a memorable Anasazi ruin?
Here is an original Anasazi tower near sunset. With some masking in Photoshop CS3, we simply created a circle with the elliptical marquee, clipped the ruin by making a white circular mask shaped like a CD, then used an arc to impose various semi-circular embossed texts to advertise workshop particulars.
Now, having ignored HDR during capture, I decided to enhance this capture using Lightroom. Two opposing dark-to-light gradients modified outer boundaries on nne and ssw azimuths, creating filters roughly parallel to the ruin's broken edge. The left gradient also sharpened and enhanced mid-tone clarity of the ruin. In effect, this choice of gradients focuses the viewer’s eye along the ruin's jagged edge, thence upward to our Lightroom 2 Workflow title in an upcoming Workshop. Then the eye can finally ascertain other information, should the viewer desire to explore farther.
An image like this, a CD Stomper, CDs, CD Cases, and Matte White Labels – and you’re prepared to supply Workshop CDs… or perhaps you prefer another way to get to a similar goal!

Out of the Box…

My people photography skills simply haven't been well honed.  So you'd expect I wouldn't look at wedding photography.
But, I became a devotee of David Ziser about the time we headed into recession/depression.  Every Thursday, David will write a business blog about some aspect of photography.  Occasionally, he’d tout one of his free videos.

One day, David showed up with a pool shot after sunset.  The sky was quite dark and the pool had green water – a marked color difference between sky and pool.
David’s Evening Blues video created a colorful transition ~ he brought out the sunset and colored the pool a deep blue – in concert with the sky colors.
Beyond that, it was a very interesting lesson in making subtle color changes to strengthen an image.  Naturally, it gave me a sense of how to use color in both Lightroom and Photoshop CS3.
Since then, whenever I get the chance, I imbibe my color senses in various David Ziser videos.  While I might be learning a little bit about wedding photography, I'm really learning about ever so subtle color enhancements and presentation styles.

Guess you could say I'm trying to think/learn out of the box...
Thanks, David!
Enjoy…

Lightroom 2.3RC User Forum Comments

Within a few days of release for new Adobe software, user forums have scoped out and commented on the various bug fixes.  Here, we report on two forums:
Adobe User-to-User
Lightroom Forums

With some ~75 comments as of 0800 MST US, the international Lightroom community seems to feel that the memory leak has been repaired.  As you might expect, individual reports do with other concerns.  I leave it to you to see if one of those aspects affect your workflow.

Cross Roads

Hidden Mountain

©Joe Bridwell

It was just a lark at first. We went sunset shootin’ west of Los Lunas. NM. A low cloud bank was pushing in from the west as the sun vanished behind Hidden Mountain. Then, the surprise began… vapor trails from an eastbound and northbound plane appeared. In a moment, their paths crossed, seeming to transfix yet emphasize the sky above the gorgeous pageantry of a remarkable sunset. And Hidden Mountain, as captured, indeed, is hidden…

This stunning image is a high dynamic range composite shot with a Nikon D300 on a steady tripod. Each image was shot at 14 bits, providing 4 times the color range of a 12 bit capture. This choice helped dramatize shadows, midtones, and highlights.
Three images were captured and brought into Lightroom 2.3. The new Photomatix Pro 3.1.3 Lightroom plugin then processed those images into a 32 bit hdr file (which we saved in case future software brush improvements provide other, more compelling benefits) before seamlessly returning a Tone Mapped 16 bit tif using Tone Compressor with no global color changes.

Back in Lightroom, we cropped the dark foreground, increased exposure 0.5EV, created a medium tone contrast, added a graduated filter in the sky, then modified a local sky-only grad filter contrast and saturation until our eye’s memory was satisfied.

Two unsuspecting pilots skillfully avoiding collision provide a sacred signature to the truly gorgeous aspects Nature provides as we extend what a camera can capture to what our incredible eye can make as a transcendent memory.

Enjoy…

New Lightroom Plugin for Photomatix Pro

You can now perform a seamless HDR image construction between Lightroom 2 and Photomatix…

When Matt Kloskowski, NAPP, recently began the crusade to get Lightroom and Photomatix to really communicate, we had v 3.1.2 Photomatix and a plugin which would take files into Photomatix, but not return them to LR. This left it up to us to move such files back into our working catalog.

Most of us are used to LR2 sending a file out to Photoshop then seamlessly getting the result back. The guys and gals at HDRsoft promised to remedy the ‘dangling file’ situation post haste.

With advent of 3.1.3 beta4, Photomatix now has a new plugin to integrate with Lightroom It only runs on the new beta vice 3.1.2. When you select 3 or more images to process for HDR, Photomatix brings up a dialog box. At the bottom, this box asks you if you want to return the result and stack it with your original images. You may choose either 8 bit jpg or tif formats. You may also choose a 16 bit tif (my normal choice since I shoot raw).

So you will want to download the new beta to speed your HDR processing.

Odds & Ends… LR2.2 Growing Pains

Software release is both an exciting and problematic process. Engineers work long and hard to 'dot every I and cross every T...'. But, they're human. On release date, somebody writes a summary of the progress notifying the public. Then everybody downloads and starts to use the software. Soon, this blog and that forum begin to have questions about new problems.

Today's entry deals with some solutions for a couple of those aspects. Victoria Bampton is one of Lightroom Forum's gurus. As a moderator for Lightroom, she gets early warning about things that don't quite work right. Her website Lightroom Queen contains quick posts as a heads up. She also has an e-book for Lightroom 2.
Matt Kloskowski gave a video description of Adobe Camera Raw 5.2 (ACR) at PhotoshopUser TV. Matt describes tools which originated in Lightroom 2 and are migrating to ACR and CS4. This video will be available free to NAPP and public users through next Sunday. After that, only NAPP can access it. ACR 5.2 currently works with CS4; ACR 4.6 works with CS3.
A troublesome aspect of 2.2 is repetition of beta and new camera profiles. Matt also gives us a technique for removing beta’s so we only access new camera profiles under Camera Calibration.

As you might suspect, there's continuing development on the v. 5 ACR's whereas v. 4.6 has reached a standstill. So, you ask, "What do I do to have these new features if I use CS3?"
As you noted from a prior post, Lightroom 2.2 contains ACR 5.2 (doubling its size). So, if you're using LR2.2 in conjunction with CS3, you can continue upward mobility through the Lightroom series as new tools are added to Camera Raw.

A Hogarty Lightroom Podcast Interview

What, no picture?  I know; you're all digital photographers and you like to see marvelous landscapes.  But podcasts are audio, not visual!  So I'm going to revert from audio to storytelling.

Tom Hogarty, Adobe Product Manager for Lightroom, Camera Raw, and DNG, gave an interesting interview in a recent podcast.  Three photography experts at PhotoNetCast.com discussed various aspects of Lightroom with Tom for over an hour.  In that hour, Hogarty expressed many viewpoints concerning Lightroom.  Among the questioner’s highlights:
Why did you guys design Lightroom? 
Lightroom represents the best parts of a digital photographer’s environment.  We added catalogs, we store previews, and we let you work on the catalog even when full images are not on that particular computer.
Are there advantages to DNG files?
DNG (Digital Negative) files have two advantages.  Near-term - lossless compression can make the file smaller.  You don't need sidecar files; metadata is saved in the DNG.  You can update the preview in the DNG to show processing changes.  You may also prevent proprietary formats from dying.
What's the purpose of the DNG Editor?
Many photographers see the cameras LCD image and like it.  Raw files can initially look flat.  The LCD image is JPEG.  So we developed camera calibration profiles to let you modify DNG images.  The LR 2.2 release this month contains the final release of these camera profiles.
In podcast E163 (120808), the NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) guys, Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, and Dave Cross recently discussed noise reduction.  Essentially, they suggest external plug-ins are more powerful than noise reduction in Photoshop products.  BTW, NAPP provides a two week window for free video download of tips and tricks for Photoshop users.
Now, back to Hogarty; What are plans for better noise reduction in Lightroom?
While Tom won't speculate on future releases, he did indicate noise reduction  has been strongly requested and Adobe listens carefully.

While I list some highlights, your interests may vary.  I suggest you download and listen to the podcast; I'm sure that during the hour interview, you'll find many things which interest you.  If you right-click on the Audio MP3 download button, choosing Save Target lets you download an MP3 file which you can hear via iTunes at your leisure.

Creative Christmas Books

Best of Show
As of now, my daughter and granddaughter, heads lovingly together, are the best of some 1400 images. Their beauty is apparent; they are deeply linked by heart and heritage. They make me very proud…

Times are tight, money’s slow; what can you create for grandkids or kids or a loved one for Christmas?

I’ve got a Family Collection Set in Lightroom!
I went back to my first digital images, began collecting by year, then by event ~ pretty soon, I had over 1400 images. Then Scott Kelby published a blog on his travel workflow. Bottom line ~ he created 2 Collection Sets with Picks for books – 1 Pick for family Vacation, another for Fine Art. Bingo ~ new idea. Thanks, Scott...
For me, this meant creating two unique Christmas books; one for each grand girl. I didn't really want a collection of both; I'd rather have each girl get her own book to create her own memories.
Enter Lightroom's Picks; I simply go through and flag images of both girls, then separate them into individual Collection Sets in the main Lightroom catalog. When I had individual sets ready, I'd export them to main desktop catalog, move that to the laptop, then work up the book on the laptop using Blurb BookSmart. When done, I'd Export the modified desktop catalogs to the studio laptop, then Import them to the main Lightroom catalog. As my last step, I'd move any auxiliary BookSmartData files from Blurb over under Projects folder on my studio computer’s external hard drive.

Standard Lightroom Pick Workflow
There's real power in Lightroom's Pick flag. If you see a photo you like, simply press P and Lightroom sets a flag on that image. Then create a picks collection set with Best, Both, Grandpa, Kylie, and Maddy. Since I'm collecting images per girl for the last four years, I've got to go through several individual Collection Sets from 2004-2008 to compile one set just for that girl. It's just a matter of being patient; 1444 originals boiled down to 67 starters. That will become 40 finalists when the girl’s books are done.
Drudgery is over...




Creative Blurb Workflow
Now the fun begins!
Photomatix has a plug-in for Lightroom; it allows me to preload Lightroom images to make an HDR image. Plug-ins really simplify set up steps I am about to describe. But, when I checked HDRsoft, Blurb had no mention of any plug-ins for Lightroom (too bad!).
So it was time to wing it and create my own workflow. I chose a standard 10x8 20 page softcover book from Blurb. I then chose a picture layout with one column for text and a title.
With both Lightroom and BookSmart open, I created one page at a time in BookSmart. If I had an image in Lightroom, I'd look at it, decide if it was how I wanted presented in the book, make changes with the Develop module if necessary, then click the Export button and save that image as a full JPEG in a folder for one girl.
Using Get Photos from BookSmart, I'd go get that photo and import it to BookSmart. I'd then drag and drop that photo onto the gray image area on each page. Then, I begin to write a description of memories that particular image evoked. Pretty soon, I'd have all 20 pages done.
Before I forget, my first two steps were to choose memorable images which I thought were Best of Kid then put them on front and back covers of each book.

I had the idea about noon one day; by noon the next day, the first book was ready to print for proofing. Yes, I did some back-and-forth as I decided how I wanted that book to look. But I knew once I had that book’s format, I had the second book nearly done!
After the proof step (or steps - I nag at words as I edit), I simply upload the book, purchase a copy, it comes by mail, I wrap it, and a girls heartfelt Christmas present is ready... with lots of deep love from grandpa and true delight on Christmas Day!

BTW, there's another aspect to this work. If I'm skillful in my writing, I'll be able to remind my granddaughters of an early history both through gorgeous pictures and clearly expressed love and feelings! Now, I consider that a low dollar creative family Christmas history...

Bosque’s Memorable Brilliance

©Joe Bridwell
A cold but still morning found Bosque birds on the move. As the sun burned underbellies of capping clouds and began lightening distant hills, hunger called birds aloft.
A relatively short handheld lens ranged behind this flock; yet, image clarity balances an off-axis presence of the uppermost bird, where all are capped by morning’s glory.
Although these birds are normally white-gray, morning’s gentle, forgiving light, filtered through distant atmosphere lying east, shows such a wonderful concordance of soft, pastel color between sharp, in-focus birds and slightly out-of-focus hills as backdrop.
Nikon D300, 70-300mm, 155mm, 1/500, f4.5, iso 200, 0700 112308

Laptop Workflow
These days, my blog or workshop is written on a laptop. I put an image in Word, I pick up a microphone, and I begin to talk around the image. Pretty soon, a well edited piece, often containing multiple images, is the result.
That morning, I filled two 4 GB cards. With other commitments, it took a day before I actually uploaded the cards; I put images on the studio's external hard drive.

But Lightroom 2 contains a lot of the 'grease' to simplify this process. Indeed, this image took a few minor nondestructive changes and it was ready to publish. To start the blog, I needed to do several things:
1. Go through initial images, throwing away out-of-focus or badly composed images. Voilà... essentially, shooting rapid fire, many shots produced only a few usable images.
2. To make that decision, I uploaded all cards, imported images with metadata, then went through using flags to Pick (P) or Reject (X).
3. With a 4 a.m. Bosque departure, when those cards were uploaded, I was still tired. So I exported images converted on the studio to make flag choices on laptop, then re-imported to begin development.
4. Bosque’s Memorable Brilliance used Lightroom's Develop module to perform the following steps:
a. Create a Virtual Copy of original DNG image.
b. Tweak Exposure, Clarity, Vibrance, Strong Tone Contrast, TAT (Lighten Clouds), Gradient Filter, and Landscape Sharpen Preset. I do this color work on studio computer with a calibrated monitor.
c. Save as a full-size JPEG.
d. Downsize JPEG using CS3 and return image to catalog.
5. Export appropriate images to laptop to write this blog.
6. When I'm done, it'll end up on an external hard drive on the studio computer with main catalog up to date from this new effort.

Checkout Scott Kelby’s Laptop Workflow In today's Photoshop Insider blog, Scott Kelby talked about a recent vacation where he used Lightgroom’s Collections, flags, and labels to quickly create Picks and Selects for a Travel Slideshow and a Fine Art Book.
For this Bosque trip, I shot two classes of images; birds in flight and five shot HDR still images. I found Collecting five HDR images in a unique collection let me quickly use the Photomatix plug-in to decide if HDR shots were any good.

Shidoni's Color Scapes

Shidoni Foundry, a fascinating photo adventure, is located in Tesuque, NM. With a museum, a yard full of unique shapes, and deep fascination of a roaring, hot metal pouring room, the foundry is a mecca for photographers.
Some 20 of us spent an excited Saturday wandering Shidoni. It was like we were on some other planet...

Pouring Hot Metal

Metal workers, clad in metallic heat reflection gear, seemed ghostly shapes from a science fiction novel. Were they really Klingons?






Here we've just retrieved a red hot iron cask full of flaming, molten metal. It's interesting ~ the man on the left, although some distance from the cask, reflects lots of heat.
Here's a close up ~ they set the cask on a base to cool slightly. I find it fascinating that flames are coming up off the liquid metal.






Notice the cooler cask rim after workers set it in the crane-mounted pouring device. It's only the second pour for this set of shapes. I was lucky enough to catch a splatter shot - don't you love the flaming hot metal streaking away across the sand below? The roaring sound of the heater drowned any talk within earshot - unless shouted!






It's almost like Fourth of July fireworks; oops, really, it's just some Klingon warship factory. Wouldn't want to get one of those flaming metal streaks caught in an open top boot...

We've seen how metal figures are cast at Shidoni's Foundry. Now, let's look at physical manifestations of this incredible process.

Outdoor Shapes

Outdoor figures seem from other worlds ~ yet with their own picturesque beauty.
From an eagle in a pond fishing, to a red box, to an abstract silver figure, then another dark, distant eagle... Shidoni’s yard is fascinating! Would beings from another world cheer?
Our image is a high dynamic range (HDR) mid-afternoon composite.
Our poster is color-coordinated - more subtle, pastel colors are chosen from within the image to create a complementary boundary.

Was this art or science fiction? The entire pouring shoot took about five minutes.

Forums and Firmware

In the midst of thinking like a Windows Explorer guru, I’ve been battling with one BIG vs many little Lightroom catalogs. If you can make an easy folder for each new project (blog, story, individual shoot, multiday shoot, workflow, etc.), then, should you carry that 'individualist' logic forward into Lightroom? I've been using individual folders for new projects for quite awhile. But, with a recent iPod, I've also been consolidating singles, albums, and podcasts into playlists, a simile to main catalogs, working catalogs, and collections.

Lightroom Forums are a planet-wide group of photographers interested in maximizing Lightroom use. From newbie to guru, a reader benefits from all levels of discussion as they grow into advanced use of Lightroom. I finally found a thread titled, "Should I be using multiple catalogs?"

It was like walking up this dry creek, looking for small, occasional loose flecks of gold, rounding a corner, and finding a dike containing a handful of gold nuggets the size of your thumb (almost wrote fist…).

Brad Snyder, Lightroom Guru and Moderator, posted,
"I think the most common arrangement among workflows I'm aware of, is a combination of 'working catalog' and Year/Month/Date 'archive catalog'. That is a single small scratch catalog used for active work (presumptively for max performance) and a large master catalog used for archival/retrieval.
"If you intend to use LR as a Digital Asset Management system, it doesn't make sense to break it into multiple chunks, requiring duplicate efforts of keyword, metadata and collection maintenance, and synchronization."

This response is similar to many during the month-long discussion about multiple threads.
I think in individual projects, some of which extend over long periods of time on the same image set as it evolves; I also do lots of work on a laptop; looks like it's really time to learn mechanics of creating an idea in a working laptop catalog, then using the Import Catalog function to combine working catalog and server’s master Lightroom catalog.
As if it was just that easy...

Nikon D300 Firmware Update 1.1
October 27, 2008, Nikon released a significant firmware upgrade.

There's a page of improvements. In my opinion, they boil down to Increasing ISO Sensitivity, Adding a Copyright Symbol, a Visible Value of High ISO NR, Improved Focus Acquisition Performance, and Noise Reduction under Manual Exposure at Bulb Shutter Speeds.
Installation instructions are clear; I find it takes a few minutes and perhaps 1% of battery to install these updates.

Both forums and firmware update significantly broaden efforts of a digital photographer to function with improved efficiency.