Winterly Haiku – Andrei Baciu
I love “discovering” new ways of seeing through the eyes of other artists. This morning I was captivated by the work of Andrei Baciu from Romania. You must have a look at his Gallery Winterly Haiki.
I discovered his work through my subscription at LensWork Online. Brooks Jenson, publisher of LensWork magazine (the premier periodical for the art of black and white photography), has also created this parallel community where just about all of LensWork is shared online – including Readers’ PDF Galleries, where I first saw Andrei’s work beautifully presented in a PDF gallery.
The beauty of Andrei’s work is in its simplicity. I have no idea what camera system he is using to create such beautiful photographs, but it could be just about anything. He has pared each scene down to its minimum to allow the negative space itself to speak. If you are serious about photography – have a look at his work as it is a reminder to us all that it’s not pixels that speak, it’s the poetry of the image.
Lightroom 4 – Continued success!
I am certainly enjoying the new Basic panel of Lightroom 4. Yes, it takes some getting used to, but my results so far have always been an improvement over what I could achieve with Lightroom 3.
The biggest difference I find is how much more precise the adjustments are to specific tonal regions. The best example is in the Exposure adjustment – it really does a wonderful job on the mid-tones without adding highlight clipping with increases or shadow clipping with decreases in exposure. This is at it should be.
Furthermore, the Highlight adjustment does a superb job with the high 3/4 tones without introducing highlight clipping – again, wonderful. The same can be said with the Shadows – I can open up shadows very nicely and much more precisely than with LR3.
Something else I’m finding, is that LR4 is much better at handling slightly clipped Highlights. In typical Expose-to-the-Right fashion, when shooting raw I slightly clip my Highlights to achieve slightly greater dynamic range. LR4 tames those Highlights much more smoothly than previously.
As a result of these improvements, I find I am reprocessing more and more of my LR3-processed images (Process Version 2010) to PV2012. However, in doing so, I don’t like what LR4 does in attempting to match what PV2010 did. I found that I needed to “zero” the Basic palette adjustments (not the masks, though, not th lens corrections, so “Reset” is not an option) and start over. Not a problem as the results were better than what I had previously, but it does mean spending a few minutes tweaking the Basic adjustments. To do the “aerating” easily, I created a Develop Preset called “Zero after PV change” – one click and the Basic palette adjustments are zeroed and ready for me to work with.
One caveat – Speed: LR4 is slower on my MacBook Pro 2 GHz Intel Core i7 with 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM. I notice a lag with switching modules which is annoying. Also, with some adjustments there is a lag.
Lightroom 4 – What’s the big deal?
The big deal is this – Soft Proofing, Books and Maps are a great addition to Lightroom, but for me, the great leap forward is in the new Basic palette of the Develop module.
Once you have converted your Lightroom 3 catalogue to Lightroom 4, you will not actually see a difference. The new palette is invoked only when you convert from Process Version 2010 to Process Version 2012. Here’s how it works…
Process Version 2010 - as per Lightroom 3
Open Lightroom 4 and take a look at a photo you have previously processed in LR3. You will see the same LR3 Basic palette – nothing has changed there, yet. Do you notice the small grey exclamation point icon in the lower right? Click on it and you can choose to convert that photo from PV2010 to PV2012. You can also convert all the other filmstrip images at the same time and even compare with a before and after. To start, just convert the one image. After a moment, you will see a slightly different version of the same image plus a new Basic palette.
Process Version 2012 - as per Lightroom 4
At the side are examples of the same photo in PV2010 and PV2012.
LR4 attempts to “convert” the PV2010 version to a somewhat equivalent PV2012, but the conversion is rarely exact and it may not even look like an improvement – not yet anyway. This is where the magic begins. There is no direct conversion from PV2010 to PV2012 since the adjustments in LR4 are much more precise to specific tonal regions within a photograph. For me, this wonderful! In fact, what I am finding is that when I “reprocess” previous images using LR4 and PV2012, I end up with much livelier mid-tones. Images have much more “presence” without reporting to Clarity or Tone Curves.
The trick is to nail down Exposure first. The Exposure adjustment has the most effect in the middle tonal values (in the middle of the histogram). In fact, if you hover your cursor over the Exposure slider or value field, you will see the central region of the histogram turn a shade lighter in grey to show the region most affected. The same is true as you drag your cursor over the other adjustments. The only that does not do this is the Contrast slider – it spreads out the histogram to either side evenly.
What’s most important, however, is how well the extreme highlights and shadows are “protected” from becoming clipped. In PV20102, it seemed that only a slight increase in Exposure would cause the Highlights to become clipped. The Brightness adjustment was better for preventing clipping. But in PV2012, it seems the Exposure slider is non-linear meaning that it’s greatest effect in the central part of the histogram with a progressively smaller effect towards either end – perfect!!
The Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks adjustments are equally “zoned” into specific regions. They work like having point curve in Tone Curves – the level of precision is much greater and the “drift” int other zones is much less. As well, with Highlight and Shadow clipping better protected, I can make more significant changes without losing either end.
Why am I using the word “zone” so much? Well, for those of you old enough to know the zone system, it’s like being able to adjust the tones within different zones of the histogram, only it is much more precise than we were ever able to achieve with N- and N+ exposure, development or printing.
I’m finding that whatever I did using PV2010, I can do better in PV2012, but that creates a dilemma. I simply do not have the time to go back and reprocess every PV2010 image. Instead, I’m reprocessing as the need arises for printing purposes and for posting to the web.
For me, this change in the Basic palette is the single most important improvement in LR4. I must admit to being disappointed in the lack of improvements in other areas such as the now totally pathetic spot removal brush (when compared to what Aperture has had for years now, not to mention Apple’s free photo app, iPhoto). I was also hoping for a better “Transform” feature similar to Photoshop. As well, I thought Adobe could to a better job in providing more options in the Web Gallery such as graphic backgrounds instead of just plain colours.
Be that as it may, LR4 is still an improvement over LR3 i the most important area for digital photographers – in the processing of our photographs. Once you start working in PV2012, you’ll start to wonder how you got on without it!
Lightroom 4 is now available!
After a number of weeks of beta testing, Adobe has released the full version of Lightroom 4 – the most widely anticipated upgrade for digital photographers around the world.
Lightroom has become the industry standard application for managing small and large catalogues of digital photographs and has virtually replaced Photoshop as the “darkroom of choice” for processing digital images. As well, Lightroom’s superior printing capabilities have made it the mainstay of fine art photographers who regularly make fine art prints.
Lightroom 4 adds a number of capabilities to what is already an excellent product. Perhaps the most significant is the new Develop module. At first glance, the adjustments will appear the same. This is because LR4 loads your images into LR3’s 2010 Process Version. But you will notice an exclamation point icon down in the bottom right (when in the Develop module). Click on it and you can convert the image to Process Version 2012.At the same time, the Basic palette of the Develop module is also converted to the new adjustments. These new adjustments – Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks – provide for even greater “accuracy” to specific tonal regions within each image. Basically, Tone Mapping – which offers much more precise control – comes to Lightroom! As you drag your cursor over the different adjustments in the Basic palette, note how the Histogram highlights the areas that will be adjusted.
But I’m getting ahead of myself… Lightroom 4 is coming in at a lower price point – only $149 for the full version and $79 for the upgrade or education versions. Once you’ve purchased and downloaded LR4, expect to take a few minutes to install it. Then, when you first open it, LR4 will upgrade your LR3 catalogue and previews. Note: you will still be able to use LR3 after the upgrade; LR3 will just need to re-create the previews in it’s own preview format. When you open LR4, you may also need to update your plugins to a version that will work with LR4. This process is straightforward with dialogue boxes to prompt/remind you to do so.
I will provide more information about LR4 over the next few days and weeks. It is exciting to have yet more creative power at our fingertips, so stay tuned!
Winter at Bark Lake
Bark Lake
This past week, I was up at Bark Lake teaching Wildlife Population and supervising 30 grade 10 students from St. John’s-Kilmarnock School. SJK is an independent school near Maryhill, Ontario between Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo with wonderful students and staff to work with. Most days during the Bark Lake week are quite full with classes indoors and out from 9am through to 10pm. Amazingly, the students are engaged and energetic throughout it all, which leaves only a few hours of downtime for the teachers. However, I did manage to take advantage of the few hours of sunlight we had Sunday afternoon and at dawn Monday morning.
I’ve been to Bark Lake Leadership Centre three times now with SJK, once in Autumn and twice in Winter. The staff there are very knowledgeable and the meals very good – more than enough to eat with lots of fresh fruit and salads. They have very comfortable accommodations in a beautiful setting surrounded by white pines, beech, maple and a beaver pond “out back”. I am considering teaming up with Bark Lake to offer weekend nature photography workshops in Spring, Autumn and Winter – if you’re interested, send me an email.
I’ve been quite pleased with the opportunities that exist for photography without straying too far from the Centre (spare time is at a premium when one is supervising high school students!). That being said there are kilometres of hiking and nordic ski trails that I’ve not had an opportunity to fully explore. As well, there are a number of rivers and lakes that provide a myriad of opportunities.
Here is a gallery of photos from the past week – not too many, but enough to give you a sense of how beautiful winter can be when there is some decent snow and lighting!
-
- Bark Lake
-
- Pre-Dawn Glow, Bark Lake
-
- Milkweed, Winter
-
- Along the Shore, Winter
-
- Grasses and Beaver Pond, Winter
-
- Bark Lake, Winter
-
- Afternoon Brilliance
luxBorealis Blog 