Microsoft Surface Pro for the Photographer

It’s been a long, long wait, but it’s finally here.  The Microsoft Surface Pro is on the market and I’m lucky enough to have spent the last week setting mine up and using it for my photography tasks.  That’s right.  A tablet form factor running Lightroom and Photoshop!

For 7 months I got to read editorials saying things like: “It’s too heavy. It’s too expensive.  There’s not enough available storage.  The battery life is horrible. The wide screen is awkward. The kickstand isn’t adjustable. Who uses a pen anymore?” Blah, blah, blah, blah!

Now that I finally have it in my hands, here’s my response: “WHO CARES!”.  Yes it’s a tablet and if that were all it was the naysayers may have valid points.  What they were all overlooking, however, is that this is also a fully functional Intel powered laptop!  I’m running Adobe Lightroom 4, Adobe Photoshop CS 6, Microsoft Office 2013, Windows Media Center, no compromise web browsers and on and on and on.  In short, I am PRODUCING content and not just consuming it all on a device slim enough and lite enough to slide into my messenger bag with my Nikon D300s and my work HP EliteBook laptop.

With all of that being said, here are a few of my personal observations for those of you who may be considering your own Surface Pro now that stock is beginning to be replenished.

• Windows 8 –  I’ve been using the new OS on my work computer for a while, but on a touch-based device it really comes to life.  Forget about the Start menu and embrace the efficiencies of the new design.
• Tablet Experience – The screen is incredible. A visual treat with a very responsive feel to your touch.  While there is definitely still “app discrimination” when compared to the iPad and Android markets, things are coming around and I’m confident that the Surface will help accelerate the pace. One area that did catch me off-guard was the fact that so many magazine publishers only allow Amazon to cater to iOS and Android.  For example, Outdoor Photographer is available via Zinio, but you won’t find it on Amazon.
• Desktop Experience – Having used Windows 8 for awhile now, the only challenges to using the full desktop environment on the Surface have been 1) Getting accustom to the Type Cover and, 2) text scaling.  I have purposely limited myself to he Type Cover so that I’d become more efficient. I’ll be honest, I won’t win any typing contests, but it’s still better than being limited to an on-screen version (new wireless keyboard and mouse arrive for my desk today).  The text scaling comes into play when connected to an external display.  Out of the box, the Surface Pro is set to scale your text to 150%.  That’s a good size when you’re packing 1920x1080 pixels into a 10” space, but not so great on a 24” external display.  It’s a shame text scaling isn’t display independent, but I’ve found what works best for me is to default back to 100% as most of my desktop experience happens on the external display.  On the occasions where I only have the 10” display, a few keystrokes (namely Ctrl + ‘+’) allow me to zoom in at the application level.
• WiFi Only – I tend to be where the WiFi is so the lack of a cellular radio doesn’t impact me all that much.  If I must, must, connect, there’s always the option to tether to my phone.
• Storage – I’ve done a few proactive tasks here to help make my 128GB go as far as possible:
  • New Lightroom Catalog – I’ve backed up my old (and somewhat bloated) Lightroom catalog to my external drive and started over.  Well, I imported my keyword hierarchy, a few other preferences and of course my “best of the best” photos, but otherwise it was time for a clean start.
  • “My Documents” on “D:” – I popped in my 64GB microSXDC card, formatted it with NTFS and changed the default location for the “Documents” library to point to this new drive.  From what I’ve read, you cannot install applications on external devices so reserving space on the C: drive for apps is something to consider up front.
  • Available Space – I’m still at 66GB free with Lightroom, Photoshop CS 6, Photomatix, Topaz Adjust, Word, Excel, OneNote, Chrome, Kindle, Live Writer, Movie Maker, Media Center, Total Theater, etc……  I am not loading my music library as I already have it on my phone and any movies (which look awesome on this display, btw) or other large files go to the external drive.  This leaves me with ample room for the photos I’ve yet to take and process.
  • Backups – I have a few OneNote docs on my SkyDrive for convenience, but limited to satellite internet at home prevents me from overusing cloud-based services.  I do, however, backup EVERYTHING to my Windows Home Server each night.

Oh, and that pen thing…. It ROCKS! While I’ve used it occasionally in OneNote, its value to me is inside Lightroom and Photoshop.  Yeah, editing photos on a 10” display isn’t something you’ll want to do everyday, but when you have detail work to do with that pen, it blows away my old Wacom tablet.

For now, that’s all.  Is the Surface Pro the holy grail of all computing devices? Probably not.  If you asked me what I’d change, however, I’m not sure I’d have much in the way of answers.  It’s the form factor I’ve been waiting for to provide the ultimate in portability which, in itself, asks for compromises.  The selling point for me was the fact that I can be productive wherever and whenever and in that space, I have not been disappointed in the least.

Update: This morning I had the opportunity to test drive the Type Cover.  As I was never a very good touch typist and with productivity being my aim, I’ve made the switch.  For a few bucks more and a couple of extra millimeters in thickness, I can now proclaim that I’ve relinquished the “Backspace” key as my favorite key.

Lightroom Identity Plates–The Curse of Scaling

It’s no secret I’m a Lightroom believer.  Up until recently it’s never let me down, but I think I’ve finally found an scenario where it simply falls short – the scaling of a graphical identity plate on prints.

About a year ago I blogged about creating a 2 line identity plate in Lightroom.  For one reason or another, Adobe hasn’t accommodated those of us on the Windows platform to be able to create a multiple line textual identity plate within Lightroom.  Instead, we must resort to creating the plate as a graphical file.  It sounds simple enough and it actually is pretty easy, but here’s the problem.  Scaling.  When you add the graphical identity plate in the Print Module, it automatically scales to 100% of the page size and not the size of the graphic.  Odds are pretty good that you didn’t create the graphic to be the width of the entire page so you’ll immediately notice that the text in the graphic is somewhat distorted.  Even when you scale the plate down to the size you intended, odds are pretty good it will STILL be somewhat distorted.

This hasn’t been a problem for me in the past as I’ve been confined to printing simple posters, etc. for my own use.  Now, however, I’m working on a limited edition print to benefit one of my favorite charities and “good enough” or “okay” are not acceptable outcomes.  It needs to be perfect.  No matter how hard I tried (and how much money I spent on what ended up to be “sample prints”), the text still appears “soft”.  In my example, the page size is 30” wide so I made the identity plate exactly 3” wide and then scaled it to exactly 10%.  Nope. Still “fuzzy”.  So what to do?

Post your question to the nice community of folks on the Adobe forums.  At least that’s what I did.  You can view the entire thread here, but the short answer is to prepare the print as you normally would to provide to a commercial printer, but WITHOUT the identity plate.  Then open the jpeg file produced by Lightroom into Photoshop and recreate the identity plate on a new layer and save it back to the jpeg file using the maximum quality settings. 

This may sound like common sense, but I was worried that “re-saving” back to the jpeg file was going to result in loss of image quality because it was being further compressed.  It took someone with experience with the process to convince me it wasn’t worth worrying about before I actually tried it.  While I don’t have the actual print in hand yet, I did do a compare of the jpeg images within Lightroom; the one where the jpeg with identity plate was produced from Lightroom and the one where the identity plate was saved from Photoshop.  It appears to be true.  I can see no discernable difference in the quality of the actual photo even zoomed in to high magnification.  Well, almost no difference…

The top line is the text captured from the file with the identity plate scaled to 10% in Lightroom.  The bottom is the exact same text produced directly in Photoshop.

Hopefully this is something that is addressed in future releases of Lightroom because so far it’s the only scenario I’ve encountered in my workflow where there isn’t an acceptable solution.

How Large is Your Lightroom Catalog?

 

My computer is tired. 

As a technology professional I employ all of the best practices to keep things running smoothly and efficiently, but inevitably things just start to bloat and slow down over time.   I’ve been running it pretty hard for just about 2 years now and this is generally the point at which I’d wipe the hard drive clean and reload my favorite applications and data from scratch. A fresh start.

If you’re a reader of the blog, you know I’ve been keeping my eye on the Microsoft Surface Pro as a potential laptop replacement.  Unfortunately we’re still a few months away from the release of the product so here I am in “limp along” mode.  Windows 8 has been available for a few weeks now too which, for a self-proclaimed geek, it’s pretty hard to sit back and wait patiently rather than just pull the plug and rebuild my current machine.  Still, I wait.

One of the areas I’m noticing the most degradation is within Lightroom.  I have only a single catalog which is now approaching 9,000 images.  I’ve read posts online from people having 5 or 6 times that number in their catalogs seemingly without performance problems.  Regardless, I’m wondering if it’s time to start with a new catalog when the eventual migration to the Surface Pro happens.  After all I will be taking a step down from 500GB of storage in my current laptop to just 128GB (plus whatever memory card I purchase).  So what does 9,000 images translate to in occupied storage space?

Catalog File	730 MB
Preview Folder	3.94 GB
Original NEF files (RAW images)	135 GB
Total	139 GB

How many images reside in “My Favorites” collection? 65.  I have just 65 photos out of nearly 9,000 images that I feel are “portfolio quality”.  I guess that helps me make my decision. I think with the advent of a new machine I’ll be bringing over those favorites into a new catalog and archiving the rest to external storage.  Another “fresh start”.

How about you? How many images are in your Lightroom catalog and have you noticed any loss of performance as your catalog increases?

Capturing the “Impossible”?

So I had the occasion to be outside during a hazy, crisp, full moon night and miraculously my camera was in my hand.  Imagine that .  With the haze being illuminated by that big bright moon and the silhouette of the bare tree in the foreground,  we had all of the makings of a good Halloween picture.  Until I tried to shoot it.
If you’ve tried to photograph the moon, you know it can be a process of trial-and-error before you get the settings right to expose that giant light bulb in the sky.  Now consider how you’d expose the moon AND get more of the silhouette of the tree in the foreground!  After handholding 10 or 15 shots it became apparent that this was one of those  “beyond the camera” moments.  It wasn’t so much that I couldn’t obtain detail in the moon as there wasn’t really any to be obtained in the hazy sky.  The problem was that if I exposed for the tree, the moon blew out the whole image.

Luckily I was shooting in RAW and it was Lightroom to the rescue!  With the help of an adjustment brush to reveal more of the tree and then a healthy dose of noise reduction, I was able to come much closer to what my eyes actually saw that chilly, spooky evening.
Have you ever found yourself shooting that seemingly “impossible” scene? What did you do to overcome it?

Lightroom 4 – Still no “Windows Love” for Multi-Line Identity Plates

Over the weekend I was fooling around with adding text to the bottom of an image I was preparing for print.  I vividly remember the last attempt at this exercise because that is when I discovered that while Lightroom allowed for multiple lines of text on the Mac platform, the feature was missing from Windows!  After a little searching I quickly discovered that I wasn’t the only one who happened to notice this and that there were plenty of disgruntled Windows users voicing their frustration on the Adobe forums.

Over one year and one version later, I figured for sure that the issue would have been addressed.  I figured wrong.  If you’re a Lightroom user on Windows, you’re still limited to the graphic identity plate if you need more than one line of text.

You can find my original tutorial here.  You can voice your outrage here.

The Making of “Still Watchful”

Yesterday I shared a reprocessed version of a photo I took this last summer of a juvenile bald eagle.   While I loved the original image, I wanted this version of the image to really accentuate the magnificence of this bird and convey a sense of loss that I felt when I learned of its demise.

Here is a copy of the original image.  The eagle is perched among the tangles of a dead branch in the morning sun.  There is a nice catch light in its eye as well as nice lighting on is head and stomach with a strong shadow cast by an out of frame branch across its chest.  As many of the branches are without bark the light is reflecting and appears a little hot, detracting from the main focus – the returned stare of this incredible bird.

With that in mind, I wanted the background to disappear.  The branch in the foreground was important to convey the surroundings of this wild bird, but I wanted to make it gradually fade into the background and leave you with that incredible expression. 

Here are the steps I took to reprocess the image:

1. From within Lightroom, right-click on the image and “Edit In > Edit in Adobe Photoshop CS6…”
2. Ctrl+N to create a new layer positioned above the original image.
3. Shift+F5 to fill the new layer with solid black
4. Add a new “Reveal All” Layer Mask to the new black layer
5. With the Layer Mask selected, reduce the opacity until you’re able to see the original image through the black layer.
6. Set the foreground color to black and then select the brush tool to begin painting the bird at 100% opacity as well as some of the foreground branches.
7. As you paint, you’ll see more of the background show through the black layer.  I paid particular attention to the edges of the bird to be sure I didn’t allow any of the green foliage to show through.
8. When I had most of the image showing through the layer mask I then reduced the brush opacity to around 30%, set the brush color to white and changed the opacity of the layer mask back to 100% before tracing around the edges of the subject.  This allowed me to “clean up” any areas where I was too aggressive and made for a smooth transition from black to the colors of the subject.
9. Using this same technique, I made multiple passes along the tree branches, especially toward the ends where I wanted the branches to fade to black, until I was satisfied with the results.  If at any point I got too “heavy handed”, I simply changed the brush color to black and “undid” the wrong.
10. When I was happy with the results, I saved the file and returned to Lightroom where I applied some additional exposure adjustments and used the spot removal tool to eliminate a few more hot areas in the branches.

And that’s it.  The end result is what I feel is a much more dramatic and compelling image without the additional clutter.

What do you think? Which of the two images do you prefer?

Still Waiting…

Earlier this week, Microsoft FINALLY released pricing and pre-order options for the Windows RT version of their new Surface tablet.  First announced back in June, there has been a lot of chatter and speculation in the industry around capability and pricing.  All of that is now known for the RT version which is set to ship on 10/26 – the same day Windows 8 is released.

So why am I holding out for the Pro? Because it will finally offer the promise of what I think a device like this should be.  Apple’s original vision for the iPad was as a “content consumption” device and every tablet variation since has been adapted to that model.  My point is that if I’m going to spend as much or more than I would for a full-blown laptop to enjoy the form factor, it better do more than let me browse the web, read a book or play some scaled down game.  I want to run Lightroom and Photoshop and a full version of OneNote.  In short, I want to be productive.  I want to produce content, not just consume it.

“Process photos on a 10.6” screen?”.  OK, so that’s not the primary selling point, but when sitting at my desk I’ll still be connected to a big beautiful screen for photo processing.  But what about when I’m not at my desk?  Yeah, this is the part that I’m actually most excited about.  By day, I carry my camera and work laptop in a nice messenger bag.  There’s no room in there, however, for my personal laptop that I use for, well, personal stuff… photos, notes, books, etc.  Now there will be.  What about having a built in stylus capability within Lightroom and Photoshop?   USB 3.0, microSDXC memory card slot for additional expansion, a complete operating system (that’s right, I’ll have access to the file system), etc., etc., etc.. 

Bring it on, Microsoft. I’m ready.  What about you? Would you consider giving up your desktop/laptop and replacing it with a tablet form factor?

You Bugger, you!

While I love most opportunities where I’m able to put my camera in my hand and lose myself for awhile, sitting on a quiet lake in my kayak and enjoying the wildlife is at the top of the list.  That is until the wildlife starts teasing!

Meet Mr. Kingfisher.  His job is to do his absolute best to be sure I never obtain a decent photo of him.  And boy-oh-boy is he good at his job!

I’ve been on the lake that he calls home enough times now that I’ve observed and pick up on his flight patterns and behaviors.  He has a triangle-shaped route on a particular bay that I like to sit in because it’s the same area in which the eagle nests.  The above shot is of Mr. Kingfisher on the first point of his triangle just before the sun rose which allowed for a nice silhouette, but too dark for an an detail.

After some adjustments in Lightroom I was able to get some detail back, but I’m still too far away for the 500mm.   Seconds later, he was off to point number 2 of the triangle.

His next perch on the lake is one where I could be right next to him and still not get a decent “wildlife” photo of him.  He likes to sit on the top of a particular dock post to keep an eye on “his bay”.

Here you can at least tell it’s a kingfisher, but not the most pleasing of scenes.  It’s his 3rd point of the triangle that would offer the best natural scene, a tree branch extending out over the lake about a foot off the surface.  So far he continues to evade me despite my best efforts.  It’s become a game between us; me trying to get the photograph and him trying to avoid it.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not frantically chasing him around the lake, but I have sat quietly for HOURS trying to get that one photo.  No joy.

To date, this is my best shot of Mr. Kingfisher as he moved from point 2 to 3 of his triangle.  See the laughter in his eye?  Some day, buddy. Some day.

Star Wars Fans?

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”. 

Well, how about 35 years ago in our own galaxy? Today’s post is a ways off the norm, but illustrates another great use for your DSLR – taking individual shots of a vintage Star Wars action figure collection you’re trying to sell .  But wait, there’s more.  How about leveraging your Lightroom knowledge to create a contact sheet of all of the cataloged images?

(click either image for larger view)

Pretty cool, huh?  And then let’s not forget the ability to shamelessly plug the sale of the collection on your blog! 

If you or anyone you know happen to be (or would like to be) Star Wars collectors, check out the entire photographed collection of action figures at http://www.kenschramphotography.com/for_sale/starwars/. 

These are just the action figures.  There’s a number of vehicles and other items I’ve not yet posted.  Eventually they’ll find their way to EBay unless I can find someone interested in the entire lot.  Spread the word (who knows, maybe there’ll be a commission in it for you) and may the force be with you.

A Week of Autumn

Autumn is my favorite time of year.  Living in Central Wisconsin, however, it seems like sometimes the entire “season” lasts only a few weeks.  In fact, as I write this post nearly all of the vibrant leaves have fallen and I’m watching snow flurries out my window . 

To celebrate the season and try to stretch it out just a little longer, I’m dedicating the entire week of blog posts to autumn photos I’ve rediscovered in my Lightroom catalog.  I’d also like to invite you to share links to your own favorite fall images using the comment section below.

To start things off, here are few images I took back in October of 2010.  This rustic barn in Door County intrigued me enough that I revisited the site several times during my stay.  The shot below from an early, foggy fall morning proved to be my favorite.

The Making of “Around the Bend”

If you tuned in earlier in the week you may have seen the image I posted titled “Around the Bend”.

Of course this is EXACTLY how it looked straight out of camera too. Alright, not really.  Despite being out in the country there was actually a fair amount of traffic on this road.  Somehow, standing in the middle of the road on a blind corner for extended periods of time didn’t seem like a real good idea so I “shot and ran”.  Here’s the REAL out of camera shot.

Here’s a quick rundown on how it got from A to B.

In Lightroom …

1. Crop and straighten the image.  That “blah” sky has got to go and we can leverage that double-yellow as a leading line to pull the viewer into the photo.
2. Now for the exposure. What a mess.  Looks like a good candidate for HDR so I focused my efforts on exposing the road properly with the original cropped image and then made 2 virtual copies.  I set the first virtual to an exposure value 2 under my original and the second 2 over.
3. Selecting all three images I sent them out to PhotoMatix Pro (right-click, Export) and applied the default enhancer template. Looks good to me. Reimport to Lightroom.
4. At this point, everything is looking good except for what I kept of the sky. Still “blah” and in need of an overhaul.  Lucky for me I had a shot of a nice crisp blue autumn sky just a few shots further into the collection.  Selecting both my new HDR image and shot of the nice blue sky, I right-clicked and selected “Edit In …” and then “Open as Layers in Photoshop…”.

In Photoshop…

1. First thing is to position the layers so the HDR is on top and the blue sky image below that.
2. With the HDR layer selected, pick the “Select” menu, use the “Color Range…” option and change the “Select” option to “Highlights”.  Just like that the crumby sky, including the difficult to select area between the pine tree branches is selected.  For good measure, I saved the selection using the option at the bottom of the “Select” menu. Just to be safe, I expanded the selection by 1 pixel from the “Select…Modify” menu to prevent any “white lines” between my sky and trees.
3. With the HDR layer selected, add a new “Reveal All” Layer Mask.
4. Select the new Layer Mask, set the brush tool, color set to black and a 30% opacity.
5. After adjusting the brush size to be able to accommodate the height of the sky selection I make my first pass over the selected sky.  Still a little blah so I made one more pass.  There. That’s better.
6. Grab the “Move Tool” and select the layer containing the blue sky.  Move the sky layer left/right until the clouds are positioned to complement the scene.
7. Save the file and exit back to Lightroom.

In Lightroom…

1. The light on the pavement in the foreground is still a little “hot” so add a new brush using the “Burn (Darken)” effect to paint the bright area until it no longer detracts from the scene.
2. Add keywords, additional metadata and share.

Compared to the amazing effort put forth by Mother Nature to provide the fall colors, the few mouse clicks were a small price to pay to help the image along a little.

Have you leveraged HDR techniques in any of your fall photos?  Have a link or two to share?  Use the comments section below to share.

Photoshop Panorama

From an early age I can remember always wanting to “challenge” a new piece of knowledge once acquired.  For example, I recall coming home with a really cool “Indian spear” from the gift shop of one of our summer vacation stops.  It had a long bamboo shaft with a rubber spear tip attached.  Attached to the toy was a label exclaiming that bamboo was “unbreakable” so of course we had to challenge the new knowledge.  My younger brother and I ran off to our favorite rock pile fort where he was kind enough to take a few whacks at a boulder with my new treasure.  Turns out bamboo isn’t “unbreakable”. Lesson learned.

So, when I recently acquired Photoshop CS6, of course I had to try out the “Merge to Pano” option.  It was there wasn’t it?  During a recent fall photo outing, I took a series of 12 landscape orientated (portrait orientated images would have been better – another lesson learned) and ran straight home to the “rock pile” to see if I could “break it”.

Turns out it actually does work and so well that it’s nothing short of MAGIC!  When I took the photos I made sure to include about a 25% overlap from one frame to the next.  After offloading the images into Lightroom I selected the 12 shots, right-clicked and from the “Edit In…” context menu, selected “Merge to Panorama in Photoshop…”.  Photoshop launched, asked me a question about my preference for stitching the images together and then went to work.  I went to eat diner.  When I came back about 90 minutes later, there it was!  A rather awkward, but accurately stitched together, autumn panorama!

After reimporting to Lightroom I had to crop a little from the top and the bottom to remove white space, but there it was.  All 1.2 gigabytes of it!  I could zoom in to any portion of the image (wait… wait… wait…) and “WOW”, stunning detail like the deer grazing in the field.  It really is “unbreakable” (at least with this series of photos).

Anyone know where I can get a 3’ x 35’ frame?

Plugins. Lightroom or Photoshop?

 VS  

Since acquiring the latest version of Photoshop, I find myself with a new dilemma. When purchasing 3rd party processing add-ins, what platform should I choose? Lightroom or Photoshop?

I have a LONG way to go before I’ll feel proficient in Photoshop and still do the majority of my post processing within the confines of Lightroom.  From that respect Lightroom feels like the right choice.  Most of the the plugins I’ve seen, however, seem to be developed for Photoshop first.  By that I mean every LR plugin I use exports the image out to a separate interface used by the plugin.  My perception is that there seems to be tighter integration within Photoshop so you don’t necessarily need this “export” step.  Is that correct?

If you are both a Lightroom and Photoshop user, which platform do you purchase plugins for and why?

YAKB: Yet Another Kelby Book

In my quest to keep the Kelby children fed, I recently purchased yet another Scott Kelby book titled “The Adobe Photoshop CS 6 Book for Digital Photographers”.  That’s right, I’m anxiously awaiting the delivery of my copy of Photoshop CS6 and to help pass the time I thought I’d order a book from one of my favorite photography authors.

I’ve barely scratched the surface and am currently reading about Camera RAW.  As an avid Lightroom user, I’m wondering if I’ll ever use it, but there’s still some helpful post processing tips to be found there as well.  In fact, now I’m wondering how long it will be before I bite the bullet and order Scott’s updated Lightroom book for version 4?

Can anyone out there recommend other good Photoshop CS6 books for “newbies”?

The “Hummer Invasion”

My wife has hung various hummingbird feeders around the homestead each summer for as long as I can remember.  Evidently it’s earned her a reputation with our tiny feathered friends as this year we’ve been completely inundated by these incredible tiny giants.

Due to the shear number of hummer families now zooming around the house, the number of feeders has increased in an attempt to accommodate.  Being the territorial little buggers that they are, each of them prefer to lay claim to an individual feeder, exert most of their energy warding off trespassers and the rest of their time refueling.  We’re now sporting a feeder on nearly every window of the house and going through at least a gallon of sugar water EACH DAY!

The photo above is of the little female that’s declared the feeder stuck to my home office window as her own.  This gave me a unique opportunity to set the camera on the tripod, tether it to my laptop with Lightroom, and then proceed to snap (mouse click) some images from behind the desk which the diners have agreed is a “safe” viewing distance.

LR Catalog Bloat? Try This.

This weekend when I opened by every day Lightroom catalog I noticed it contained nearly 8,000 images.  I clicked on “All Photographs” and started scanning through the mountain of pixels and more than a few sleepers started to jump off the page at me.  Time for some clean up once again.

If this sounds familiar, perhaps this post can help you tidy things up a bit.

A few things I look for are images that have not been edited, flagged, cropped, etc.  If I didn’t think they were important enough to process then they probably don’t deserve to occupy the hard drive.  Keep an eye out for that missing gem though.  On more than one occasion I’ve found a shot that I was able to apply a new technique or process to that’s resulted in a new favorite.

What are some of your criteria as to whether a photograph stays or goes?

The New Lightroom is Here! The New Lightroom is Here!

Lightroom 4.1 that is.  If you like to wait for the first service pack to arrive before jumping on the new version bandwagon, its time for you to jump!  You can read all about the latest release on Adobe’s Lightroom Journal blog.

Deleting Rejected Photos from a Collection in Lightroom 4

Back in February of 2011 I wrote a blog post about one of my Lightroom pet peeves.  You couldn't flag an image as a reject inside of a collection and then Ctrl + Backspace to delete the image.  This action only removed the rejects from the collection.

Guess what?  In LR4, you STILL can’t .  There is some good news, however.  These reject flags now persist across your catalog.  This means that when you flag an image as a reject inside of a collection, it appears as a reject outside of that collection as well.  So, now you can Ctrl + Down Arrow (or “X”) within a collection to flag images as rejects, select the “All Photographs” option in your catalog and THEN issue a Ctrl + Backspace to delete all rejects found within your catalog.  Not perfect, but better.

Have a tip about managing your Lightroom 4 catalog?  Drop a note in the comment section below send me a quick email.  I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time, keep click’n.

-Ken

Lightroom 4.1 Around the Corner (Still)

I’ve been keeping my eye out for the official release of Lightroom 4.1, mostly to correct some of the performance issues I’ve been noticing. Luckily I haven’t been processing a lot of photos lately so my patience hasn’t run out yet, but others in the community have been pretty vocal.

The 2nd release candidate came out at the end of last month and reportedly fixes a number of the issues related to performance and the infamous point curve bug.  According to many in the forums, however, the point release may have had a negative impact in some other areas.

Have you made the leap to 4.1 RC2?  If so, what has your experience been like?

"NO!!! Focus on the Bird! Not the foreground! THE BIRD!"

Last week I shared the story of the shot I "Almost" had for our wall as well as a series of images taken during the "Second Chance Round" when the other eagle of the pair took pity on me.  Today I thought it would be fun to show the entire series of images from that second attempt mingled with a little color commentary.  Here we go...

Dateline: Monday, April 2, 2012
Eagle River, WI

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 1100 @ 500mm

Time: 8:35:42 AM
"Ah, FINALLY some sunshine after 4 days of gloom.  To bad we go home today.  There you are pretty girl.  How are you doing this fine morning?  What do you think about maybe helping me out a little here? Throw me a bone and give me something to shoot at before we have to leave..."

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 1000 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:08 AM
"Oh, crap! There she goes!  Ha, Ha! I'm ready this time.  Center of the frame? Check. Pan. Click. Pan. Click. Keep panning... Come on auto focus, wake up...."

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 1800 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:09 AM
"I've still got you! Keep coming... keep coming. Pan. Click. Pan. Click.  Camera's drifting down a little. You know what, this thing is pretty heavy.  If I shot this lens with any regularity, I'd really need to invest in a good monopod. Hey! Wake up! Day dream later!..... Ok...Get her back in the center.  Give yourself some buffer.  Why is she all blurry?  That pine tree behind her looks awesome though.  Can never have enough shots of pine trees.  Come on auto focus, come on ...."

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 220 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:11 AM
"Ok. Ok. Ok. Going up above the tree line.  Stay on her. Stay on her. Pan. Click. Pan. Click. Take it easy on the shutter, buddy.  Save that precious buffer for when you need it. Ha, Ha. seven frames per second... how lucky am I? Do people really spend hundreds of dollars for faster memory cards?.... Pan. Click. Pan. Click. Come back this way, girl. Don't be taking off down river on me.  Oh man! Look at that light. Sweet GLORIOUS light!  Now we're talkin!  I've got you right where I want you now!  And way to go auto focus!  I knew you could do it..."

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 220 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:12 AM
"Hey! That's a pretty good shot!  Nice cinematic crop will look good.. show off that impressive wingspan. And those eyes. How beaut.... Wait! She sees something! I think she sees som......"

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 400 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:13 AM
"HERE WE GO! HOLY CRAP! IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!  Don't lose her now..... ah man, PAN! CLICK! PAN! CLICK! PAN!  STAY ON THE BIRD! Where'd that light go! Come on AF! Come on!"

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 400 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:13 AM
"I am NOT going to lose you now! Keep panning! CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.  PAN. CLICK. PAN. CLICK. CLICK. Dude, you're laying on the shutter release! Save some! How far are we from the water anyway? STAY ON THE BIRD!"

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 560 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:14 AM
"Who in the hell put a house right in the middle of this photo?  Man! Look at the drumsticks on that bird! I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of those talons. Whew! What a great pose.  Too bad about the house though.  Did you know peregrine falcons can reach speeds in excess of 200 mph when in a dive? I wonder if there's any of those sausage patties left for breakfast? Sure am glad she isn't going that fast or I'd never keep up... FOCUS!"

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 500 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:14 AM
"I can see the river bank now and, hey, whatta know, that's almost in focus. Nasty shadow from her wing though. I wonder if I'll be able to lighten that up in Lightroom? PAY ATTENTION! PAN. CLICK. CLICK. PAN. CLICK. PAN. CLICK. CLICK... Is this really going to happen?"

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 900 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:14 AM
"TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!! NOW! LAY ON THAT SHUTTER RELEASE! CLICK. CLICK.CLICK. CLICK. PAN. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. PAN.....Wait. Where's the focus? WHERE IN THE 'H' 'E' DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS IS THE FOCUS?!?!?!"

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 900 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:14 AM
"NOT THE GRASS YOU PIECE OF #@!#$! THE BIRD! THE BIRD! THE #@!$%'n BIRD! FOCUS! FOCUS! FOCUS!"

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 720 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:14 AM
"Alright. Deep breath. Let's just take a 1/1000 of a second for myself here. Regroup. What am I doing wrong?  Well, you're drifting down a little bit.  Yeah, I know, but this thing really is sort of heavy with this monster 150-500mm you know. Quit your whining you big baby. I'm not whining. I'm just saying... Is you a man or is you a mouse? This really isn't helping.  Let's run down the checklist quick. Shutter speed? Check. Aperture? Well, if you opened it all the way up.... Hmm. What do you mean open it up all the way? The light's decent.  Auto ISO is still only at 720. What's wrong with that? Well, you know. I'm just saying... By the way, did you notice those two ducks in the upper right a few frames back? I think they're laughing at you. You know, the one where your horizon line is all kittywampus? And another thing... TIME'S UP!  Oh yeah, right! CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK."

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 720 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:15 AM
"There we go! Now things are coming into focus. Another beautiful, sharp shot of marsh grass.  That's going to look great hanging on the wall next to that shot of that pine tree from earlier.  Too bad there's that distracting blurry eagle in the background."

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 560 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:15 AM
"Another awesome shot of the grass.  I'm thinking maybe a nice triptych... grass, tree, grass? And what if we converted them to black and white? Maybe apply some cool filters or something? Oooooo... artsy! Hate to say I told you so, but if you'd just lift the camera up a little...  Ah, leave me alone. I'm admiring the grass."

1/1000 sec, f/8, ISO 560 @ 500mm

Time: 8:36:18 AM
"PAN. CLICK. There! I've lifted the camera back up. You happy? Well, if you'd have focused on her head...and of course there's no fish... Oh, shut up!

Well, THAT was exciting!  I wonder how many of these are going to turn out? Think we got any keepers? Do you really think there are a few of those breakfast sausages left? Those were really good."

And there you have it. The full seven seconds in all its glory. ;-)

Until next time, keep click'n.
-Ken