Rat-ta-tat-TAT

Dowager Duchess

©Joe Bridwell
Ancient hat on her head,
Brim pulled low against setting sun,
Brown purse clutched tightly beside formless dress,
the Dowager Duchess presses on,
As if to Her Majesties Royal Guard drummers…

Runner Up
Dowager Duchess came in a close 2nd in my own selections for submission to Darwin Wiggett n the recent Intimate Landscape’s workup .
Somehow, after starting a piece, I seem to find a title or competition name most apt for each image. I must admit, Bisti Mosaic did take a while to jell.
But, our Dowager Duchess came easily, perhaps influenced by many pleasant years watching Masterpiece Theatre.

Rat-ta-tat-TAT
As pleasant, if not much more so, is the exciting new TAT tool (Targeted Adjustment Tool in CS4). We’ve talked about it in prior blogs…
TAT is a slider based tool which works in Curves and Hue-Saturation-Luminance. Click on TAT (hand icon with finger up), move cursor over color you wish to change (Tone Map), and move up or down to quickly get your setting just right. If you're working HSL - move right or left. TAT’s really powerful – Adobe has set TAT up to work on more than one slider at a time. Clearly, this is a remarkable, time-saving tool…

Bisti Hoodoos
Not to forget – we took this Bisti image about sunset in late October. The Bisti Badlands is located south of Farmington and northwest of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. It’s hoodoos provide amazingly surreal, off-world imagery!
Working in combination with Lightroom 2 and CS4, both Dowager Duchess and Bisti Mosaic were easily tone mapped and prepared for competition as Intimate Landscapes…

Enjoy…

Intimate Landscapes

Bisti Mosaic
©Joe Bridwell
Magic Hour light, Bisti Hoodoos, highlights and shadows.
What an evocative hoodoo/reflection shape to set up a pattern.
Then with subtle color change, a remarkable repeat, just a different pattern...

Darwin Wiggett

In a summer competition, Darwin is focusing on Intimate Landscapes. At first, I thought I had just the one - Water Woman.
But then, I read the rules a little more carefully. "No sky..."

Back to the Drawing Boards
Time to go back through several years of Bisti images. Also, time to start from scratch developing those images because of new development tools in Lightroom and CS4.
I've evolved tremendously since shooting these Bisti images. My evolution is in creative application of Photoshop. The tight connection between Lightroom and CS4 has allowed me to 'pick and choose' between the appropriate tool in each piece of software.
At this point, I really prefer to do a lot of early tone mapping work in Lightroom's develop module. Early work - clipping, curves tone mapping (using the TAT tool), hue, saturation, and luminance (HSL’s TAT), landscape sharpening with masking, and camera profiles in Lightroom. Closure - varied application of Pixel Genius' Photokit Sharpener using the creative sharpening tool for advanced 3-D sharpening in CS4.
Or, even more subtle masking techniques in CS4...

Bisti Mosaic – Tone Poem?
I really love how light and shadows captured one late fall sunset interplay with challenging and ever-changing hoodoo shapes of the Bisti Badlands. With skillful Photoshop application, Bisti Mosaic has become a tone poem... one lit shape casts a shadow on another shape; then God, with a mischievous gesture, changed the shape and color, casting yet another evocative shadow!
Who says you can't fly to the Bisti on a magic carpet, take pictures as if you were off-world on Mars, yet create the perfect Intimate Landscape?

Enjoy...

Configurator 0.9.0

Life / Photography just got easier…
Those marvelous Adobe engineers have done it again!
Simply put, Configurator is a roll-your-own cornucopia for tools, actions, adjustments, masks... you name it, you can do it. Put everything you do in CS4 in one simplified place.

Channels and Masks
Deke McClelland recently released Photoshop CS4 Channels and Masks - One on One. In the preface, Deke gives you keyboard shortcuts, sets preferences, and installs his preferred version of Configurator on your CS4. As you work through his book, he's tailored the CS4 environment for you ~ just the way he thinks.

Making Configurator Work
Configurator is a new tool from Adobe; along with Air it's a simple install. Just drag and drop tools and other controls, add your own personal touch with an image, play a video, even reach out to your blog if you wish - the flexibility is immense.
In essence, this is just a beginner's shot from me. I already know, that with time, my present Configurator 0.9.0 will become Configurator 1.3 (?) as I refine, enhance, and speed up my workflow using this remarkable tool.
BTW - Configurator only works on Adobe Photoshop CS4…

Users Guide
Adobe's Users Guide does a pretty fair job of setting up the workflow environment for Configurator. Between looking at Deke's version and checking out the users guide, I built 0.9.0 in a little over an hour.
Because of the recent Trojan horse and rebuilding the laptop, I've had to do several tweaks to CS4 after it's recent reinstall.

Not So Subtle Bonus

With DSLR sensors getting bigger and bigger, images get smaller on the screen.  With Configurator, I have gained some more screen space, simplified my click path, and gained can now more deeply enjoy Channels and Masks...

Configurator is sort of like meringue tips on icing on the most delicious chocolate pie... while I musn't do pies any more - Configurator is a sublimate!
Enjoy...