Harry http://behret.smugmug.com/NANPA member How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
Looks to me like you have been on the "upswing" in your work lately. Some real good stuff!!!
attending that Reznick workshop was the best photographic expenditure I've ever made. It changed my shooting techniques and post processing techniques almost 180 degrees. A real breakthrough.
Harry
Harry http://behret.smugmug.com/NANPA member How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
attending that Reznick workshop was the best photographic expenditure I've ever made. It changed my shooting techniques and post processing techniques almost 180 degrees. A real breakthrough.
Harry
...sharpening technique? I have been doing this lately with some decent results...along with selective sharpening. If you have already posted about your new ways of processing, please point me to it.
...sharpening technique? I have been doing this lately with some decent results...along with selective sharpening. If you have already posted about your new ways of processing, please point me to it.
Hey Ric,
Last month I took Reznick's workshop and as part of my area's annual Wildlife Festival I took diifferent workshops with 3 different pros. I had been shooting almost completely in manual mode and spot metering (I'm a control freak). I would meter the darkest area of a scene and then meter the brightest and then determine my setting from those readings and I would expose to the right. All 4 pros advised me to shoot in Aperture priority and make ev adjustments from the histogram as I shot. They also recommended matrix metering in most situations. They all felt that the main thing to avoid was blown out highlights as that is data that can't be recovered in post.
Reznick emphasizes getting the exposure nailed and getting the wb right so you don't blow out any of the channels. Since his workshop I've been fanatical about nailing the exposure. Previously i was careless with that figuring I could PS it with mutiple layers and masks to correct what I missed. I'm finding that my shots now need virtually no post work. And here I am owning every PS plug-in known to man.
My post workflow is very simple now. I do 95% of my post in Nikon's Capture 4.1. After opening the file I do some low sharpening. I will usually set a grey point in channels to adjust the wb. I will find a neutral area in the shot that reads 128 and set that as my grey point. I then adjust the color channels in Capture's Curves for shadows and luminousity adjustment. I will then open the image in PS and use USM for local contrast enhancement and then crop and save as a tiff if I will work on it later and a jpeg for posting and printing.
Harry
Harry http://behret.smugmug.com/NANPA member How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
Last month I took Reznick's workshop and as part of my area's annual Wildlife Festival I took diifferent workshops with 3 different pros. I had been shooting almost completely in manual mode and spot metering (I'm a control freak). I would meter the darkest area of a scene and then meter the brightest and then determine my setting from those readings and I would expose to the right. All 4 pros advised me to shoot in Aperture priority and make ev adjustments from the histogram as I shot. They also recommended matrix metering in most situations. They all felt that the main thing to avoid was blown out highlights as that is data that can't be recovered in post.
Reznick emphasizes getting the exposure nailed and getting the wb right so you don't blow out any of the channels. Since his workshop I've been fanatical about nailing the exposure. Previously i was careless with that figuring I could PS it with mutiple layers and masks to correct what I missed. I'm finding that my shots now need virtually no post work. And here I am owning every PS plug-in known to man.
My post workflow is very simple now. I do 95% of my post in Nikon's Capture 4.1. After opening the file I do some low sharpening. I will usually set a grey point in channels to adjust the wb. I will find a neutral area in the shot that reads 128 and set that as my grey point. I then adjust the color channels in Capture's Curves for shadows and luminousity adjustment. I will then open the image in PS and use USM for local contrast enhancement and then crop and save as a tiff if I will work on it later and a jpeg for posting and printing.
Thanks for the insight.
I can see that I need to take better shots. All I really have to do is stop being lazy. If I put as much thought into taking the shot as I do in processing it...I guess I'd have it made.
I fell in love with PictoColor's iCorrect Editlab plugin (an easy yet powerful tool). So I rely on it too much. I've only dabbled in raw conversion because of it though. Phase One's Capture One software is also amazing...but it doesn't support the 20D on windows platform yet...coming soon. The raw convertor that Canon provides requires a higher screen resolution than my eyes are comfortable with...so I haven't used it. I use an 18.1 inch Sony flatscreen that is quite good, but the eyes are getting old so perhaps the time in the field (paying attention to detail) is wiser than a new...bigger monitor or processing prowess!
Comments
Very pretty shot, thanks for sharing it
Whats that white stuff though?:D
Harry
http://behret.smugmug.com/ NANPA member
How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
I envy your climate and your shooting ops.
Looks to me like you have been on the "upswing" in your work lately. Some real good stuff!!!
attending that Reznick workshop was the best photographic expenditure I've ever made. It changed my shooting techniques and post processing techniques almost 180 degrees. A real breakthrough.
Harry
http://behret.smugmug.com/ NANPA member
How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
...sharpening technique? I have been doing this lately with some decent results...along with selective sharpening. If you have already posted about your new ways of processing, please point me to it.
Hey Ric,
Last month I took Reznick's workshop and as part of my area's annual Wildlife Festival I took diifferent workshops with 3 different pros. I had been shooting almost completely in manual mode and spot metering (I'm a control freak). I would meter the darkest area of a scene and then meter the brightest and then determine my setting from those readings and I would expose to the right. All 4 pros advised me to shoot in Aperture priority and make ev adjustments from the histogram as I shot. They also recommended matrix metering in most situations. They all felt that the main thing to avoid was blown out highlights as that is data that can't be recovered in post.
Reznick emphasizes getting the exposure nailed and getting the wb right so you don't blow out any of the channels. Since his workshop I've been fanatical about nailing the exposure. Previously i was careless with that figuring I could PS it with mutiple layers and masks to correct what I missed. I'm finding that my shots now need virtually no post work. And here I am owning every PS plug-in known to man.
My post workflow is very simple now. I do 95% of my post in Nikon's Capture 4.1. After opening the file I do some low sharpening. I will usually set a grey point in channels to adjust the wb. I will find a neutral area in the shot that reads 128 and set that as my grey point. I then adjust the color channels in Capture's Curves for shadows and luminousity adjustment. I will then open the image in PS and use USM for local contrast enhancement and then crop and save as a tiff if I will work on it later and a jpeg for posting and printing.
Harry
http://behret.smugmug.com/ NANPA member
How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, "I could have done that better!"
ric, nice snow cone!
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I can see that I need to take better shots. All I really have to do is stop being lazy. If I put as much thought into taking the shot as I do in processing it...I guess I'd have it made.
I fell in love with PictoColor's iCorrect Editlab plugin (an easy yet powerful tool). So I rely on it too much. I've only dabbled in raw conversion because of it though. Phase One's Capture One software is also amazing...but it doesn't support the 20D on windows platform yet...coming soon. The raw convertor that Canon provides requires a higher screen resolution than my eyes are comfortable with...so I haven't used it. I use an 18.1 inch Sony flatscreen that is quite good, but the eyes are getting old so perhaps the time in the field (paying attention to detail) is wiser than a new...bigger monitor or processing prowess!