Posts Tagged ‘Lightroom’

Photographing from a new perspective

Our guests were surprised by today’s morning activity – photographing from the back on an elepha”nt while it takes them on a game “drive”. Each guest had an elephant fitted with a comfortable saddle and an expert handler/driver. While out in the reserve they encountered giraffes, zebra and other plains game that were unfazed by the presence of elephants. They even came upon some lions resting in the grass. The lions and elephants were completely at ease and this gave our guests the chance to get some really close shots.

Our afternoon was a great time to learn some Photoshop and Lightroom skills from Greg’s wife Karen and when our brains were full we ventured down to the archery range for some fun competitive target practice while the eland and giraffes munched in the grass nearby.

Edited: April 24th, 2012

Scanning My Slides to Digital

Back in 2005 I published a book  using all slide images, but 7 years on I find myself using my slide images less and less.  That changed recently when I had a request for some images that only exist in my collection as slides.  Once I started working with them my opinion of my digitized slide images has gone from one of weak and time consuming to being excited at the potential of some of the best of them.

My slide to digital adventure started in 2007. I was already well into digital and my last film trip was in 2005 (remember those x-ray proof bags?).  Most of the slides were not in trays and I didn’t have many trays due to the fact that I sold the trays on Ebay while the market was still high.  Add to that the fact that the bulbs in my projector were so expensive and kept braking, and I was ready to commit to get all of these slides digitized. My main goal was to get them into digital form just to see what I had, but I still scanned them at the highest specs and quality  that my scanner could do.  The physical slides would then be organized and stored so any really nice image could be pulled and treated to a drum scan or better.

In summary it went like this:

Triaged   maybe 8,000 – 9,000  slides

Cued up 6000 slides to scan

Scanned most of those

Today still have  4850   slide based files in the database

Each file is  124.6 MB  and 5568 x 3724  pixels

The first step was to triage on the lightbox and number each of the ones that passed beyond the “junking” step.  This number would then become the file number for the digital file. My naming scheme was similar to my usual naming scheme but had an indicator for slide.

This was the comparatively fun part:  Each scan took around 15 minutes to perform and I set a minimum goal of 20 slides per day, everyday.   It was a drain on my system and nearly caused my computer to catch fire in the hot summer months but I stuck to it.   I scanned with no extras such as adjustments or cropping; just a straight scan with the eye toward fixing them with the expert tools in PS or Lightroom. After they were scanned and saved I added them to the Lightroom catalogue then added keywords and the metadata including the location, dates, and other things if I could remember.

Close to a year later I was finished – this was the worst project I had ever done, but now I could really assess what I had.  Some of the slides have been removed due to my improving skills or technical issues I just could not over come.  Occasionally I rescan a slide to try to improve the original, but many taken at locations I frequent have been surpassed by digital images and thus languish with a rating of 1 star or have been removed.  The unique images in my collection, however, still hold promise.  At this time I am waiting on word as to whether a collection mostly slide images will be selected for publication in a dive tourism manual.

Edited: January 3rd, 2012

Managing Your Digital Image Assets

Guests on our safaris can get  overwhelmed by the volume of images they shoot on our trip.  It is important to have a system in place for storing and backing up image files.  Equally important is a method of triaging and cataloging images that gets your photos quickly into  a state whereby you can review them each day.  I believe reviewing good and bad images after each session speeds the learning process and gives the photographer the best chance of improving (and sometimes redeeming themselves)  while still on safari.  The view screens and information provided on the camera are good and can allow you to make quick technical adjustments during the shoot, but it is not a replacement for the cool-headed technical and artistic analysis that can only happen on a larger screen and when you are calm and settled back at the lodge.

I recommend taking a look at a book by Peter Kough The Dam Book – Digital Asset Management for Photographers
He discusses the whys and hows of digital asset management. He is also a frequent presenter at Photoshop World Conferences.

Some preplanning and education before the trip will make the daunting task of sifting and learning from your new treasure trove of images quicker and more productive. Three major things need to be in place before travel as a foundation to keep you organized.

File Folder Storage Structure (on the hard drive)

My file folder structure is not designed to organize the files by topic, shoot, or trip: I rely on my cataloging software to do this for me and point me to the storage location when I need the file.  Instead my folders of raw images are numbered in sequence and code for the range of shooting dates contained within. They are sized to be  10GB or less for ease of moving them around and backing up

Image File naming

I rename all of my RAW images (btw I only shoot RAW).  There are many reasons to do this including:

No chance of duplicate file names between different cameras and photographers (such as my wife’s images)

The file name encodes basic information that is apparent just by looking at the file name (who shot the image, sequence, and date)

You can formulate a naming scheme to fit your needs and use presets to apply the name on each import automatically.

Cataloguing and Organizational Software Tools

If you are serious enough about photography to go on a photo safari you will need more than your operating system’s file browser to manage you photo collection.  Adobe is not the only company making photo cataloging software, but their Lightroom, Bridge, and Photoshop programs are excellent and deep with features and they work well with other photo finishing packages such as the suite of products by Nik Software .  A product like Lightroom acts like a database giving you access to all of the information stored by the camera as well as information you add such as key words, named collections you create, ratings, flagged images. They even  give you a full set of nondestructive tools to correct the image, import , print, and export, and even make a slideshow or web gallery.

Once these elements are in place you can create presets to use as you load off your memory cards and some that automatically do some image correction (like white balance).  Using presets and a structured data plan   will make saving and preprocessing after a shoot a no –brainer and a simple task.

If you have a step by step process to follow your photos will be neatly organized and safely backed up very quickly. Your process can also expedite the culling and review of the images.

My process for dealing with the mass of images while on safari

Create a backup on a backup drive right away

Memory card goes in card reader and files are copied to a portable backup drive attached to the computer. (this is a full backup copy)

Copy images from memory card to the computer

The memory card gets copied to the computer hard drive (this is the working copy)

Load images into Lightroom (or other catalogue software) and apply data

While the files are copied they are renamed, converted to DNG,  and imported into Lightroom with basic metadata (keywords and location data)

Start the review process

Cull out the photos that are technically deficient – Taking the time to analyse why they are bad.  Consider keeping some of these in a special collection to study and learn from.

Apply more keywords (such as animal names), sort images into logical collection groups, rating, and finally some minimal correction.

The goal of this first pass is to triage only based on technical merits.  The most beautifully composed blurry photo is useless except as a learning tool and a motivation to get it right next time.  I also quickly move through the keywording without getting distracted by the images.  Keywording  and location data is boring for me, but vital in a large catalogue so I push through it and just get it done as fast as possible.  If I start enjoying the images and playing with adjustments I will never get the data phase done.  Just do it and get it over with.  I will add more metadata in the future to best images.

Now it gets more enjoyable on the second pass.  I have many images and need to find the best ones quickly for a client or the website and spend the most time on only those images.   I go through all images again this time with an eye for technical and artistic merit.  Now that I have keywords I can do some sorting by animals or other content. After this pass all images not marked for deletion get a rating of  1 stars.  A few of the stand out images will get 2 stars.

If time is short I can get right to the job of studying what went wronged or right and whether I got the angle or action that I wanted.  I can make my checklist and wish list for the next shoot.  If I have time I can continue with the rating and sorting.

The second pass analyses the 1 star images and elevates some to 2 stars (above the established average).  I do not generally  mark any more for deletion.  I then go through the 2 stars and elevate some to 3 stars.

I permanently delete the marked files from the hard drive.  I will make a backup based on the working files.  Eventually I will delete that first backup, but not until I am home and have worked with the files for a while  it make sure nothing is missing or mistakenly deleted.

Edited: October 27th, 2011

Look for the Picture within a Picture

I have been playing around with cropping lately and practicing techniques to turn mediocre pictures into great pictures.

This elephant photo in its original form is not a great composition.  I was concentrating on the baby elephant hoping he would do something fun and cute and I didnt really pay attention to the very touching interaction between the large female and the juvenile elephant.

Some lighting and color correction and a crop with a vignette all completed in Lightroom gives me a very nice portrait with lots of warm fuzzy motherly vib.

Don’t disregard a photo before examining it closely for details and emotions you did not know were in there.

Edited: October 7th, 2011

Using B&W Conversion to Enhance the Subject and Composition of an Image

Occasionally the color in an image can distract away from the real topic.   In this image of two elephants, I want to present the contrast in size between the two, the interesting shapes of their bodies, and the details on their skin.  The fact that they are grey  and the background is bright and colored is an obstacle .  My goal is to desaturate the colors of the background and enhance the exposure and color of the elephants in order to make their shape and details grab the eye of the viewer.

My first step is to get the light and contrast right on the elephants.    I like to make my corrections  with the color saturation set to desaturate.   This focuses my attention to black, white, and grey, and I am not distracted by color issues.  Ignoring the background which will get its own treatment, I optimize the elephants using the Tone Curve.  The image is a little overexposed, so I darken the shadows quite a bit.  I take it rather dark because I want a high contrast look.  The “darks” – the darker midtones,  need a  boost in order to show all the details of the hide.  The lights and highlights are adjusted down slightly to compensate for the harsh sunlight coming off the background.  One adjustment for the background is to move the Recovery slider about half way.  This will help with the blown hightlight in the sky and temper the edges of the elephants head.  I like the added contrast from a small touch of the Blacks slider which sets the black point.  I am in effect taking away some shadow details here by setting all of the those tones of black to true black – but I like this look for this image.  I restore the color by setting the Saturation slider back to neutral. I know I have the adjustments right, but colors make it look  awful but I am about to fix that.

I know I want a “cream tone” effect for this photo similar to a preset that comes in Lightroom.  The color ranges I do not need are Green, Aqua, Blue, Purple, and Magenta  because they play no part in this sepia effect so I go to the HSL panel and set the saturation of these colors to -100 (fully desaturated).  That took care of the unwanted green the background, but it is not yet what I want.  My final cream-like tone will contain some red, yellow, and orange. Through experimentation I discovered I did not need Orange so I set that slider to desaturated and set the Yellow and Red to -50.  Now I have an image that has a correct black to white tonal range and is almost fully desaturated of color except for Red and Yellow which as half desaturated.

Now I will use the White Balance tool to turn some areas of white or light grey to my only remaining colors: red and yellow creating the cream colored cast.  Sliding Color Temperature to the warm side fills yellow tones into the grass and trees.  The elephants have quite a bit of red in the color of their hide (they are not neutral grey) so sliding the Tint away from the magenta side improves the look of the elephants and makes them stand out from the background by way of a separation of color tones.  Now I can make some fine adjustments to the Tone Curve. I could also do some sharpening to  bring out the texture of the foreground grass and as prep for printing, but I am going to add an effect using Photoshop instead.

I right-click and choose Edit in PS to open the image in Photoshop.   I make two copies of the image on layers, one I convert to a Smart Object and the other I place on top of this layer and turn off the visibility for now.  The filter I want is Poster Edges.  I also like the look of Fresco for this type of image.  I adjust the options to give me a high posterization level and low intensity and small thickness.  The effect is a sketched in effect on the texture of the elephant’s skin further emphasizing the detail and giving an aged look to the photo.  The only drawback is that it effects the background and since this whole exercise was to deemphasize the backgroud I will need to use a mask to limit the filter effect to just the subjects and foreground. This is done by using the original on the layer that I placed above the filter layer. I make this layer visible, add a mask and hide  the areas with the elephants and foreground allowing just the unposterized background to show.  Back on the filter layer, I fine tune the filter effect by masking out  at less that 100% some areas that I thought had gained too much detail.

By converting this image to a black and white I have transformed a picture of two really cute elephants in a good composition which had exposure and color issues to an image which highlights to shapes and textures of the animals without distracting elements.  A filter in Photoshop takes this vision a few steps further.

Edited: August 28th, 2011

Using Graduated Filter Tool to Enhance the Sky

A great photo opportunity does not always come with proper lighting and a cooperative subject or when you are 100% ready.

The Graduated Filter Tool in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom 3 is a terrific tool for improving a shot with a lack-luster sky. The tool can do more than just brighten or darken a sky you can control saturation, color, sharpness, and contrast at the same time. The bonus is that you can return and adjust your filter and that the filter blends seamlessly unlike other correction tools which can show edges.

This picture of a fish eagle taking flight toward the sunset and mountains could be better.

After some slight standard adjustments to the Curves and an adjustment brush stroke on the white tail was all that was needed before working on the Graduated Filter.

The sky needs darkening and could benefit from some contrast in the colors and clouds. I opened the Graduated Filter Tool and set the Exposure and Brightness down a few steps.  These initial settings are guesses and can be adjusted later.  To enhance the sunset I also increase the Contrast , Saturation, and Clarity.   Decreasing the Clarity is a good way to soften clouds, but that is not what I want here.

I take the tool onto the image starting at the top which is where I want the most effect from the filter and drag it down  to the trees in the foreground.  Now I can go back to the sliders and refine the effect to exactly what I want.  I then add a second Graduated Filter for just Exposure that starts at the bottom and goes up just far enough to darken the foreground trees.

The final touch is to add Post Crop Vignette to darken the corners some more and bring the attention to the center.

It is also fun with a sunset image to play with the color of the filter.  Below the sliders you will find a square which represents the color of the filter. Click on it and select a color.

Edited: June 26th, 2011

Photoshop Fun – Group Shot

Presenting our May 2011 group!

I had inspiration for this picture and would like to make this a tradition on each safari.  I can image the lodge with a whole wall of these pictures bringing back great memories.  The animals were chosen for significance to this particular safari: The baby lion we saw on our second to last day, the nice male lion who roared for us at sunset, the zebras who blocked access to the tree houses, the tortoise who was a model for us, and the rhino mother and baby from one of the best game drives we had.

I brief run through of how I did this:

This was a straight collage exercise using nothing more fancy than selection tools, eraser, clone stamp, and copy paste.   Next time I may use individual shots of the guests. Maybe have them model pith helmets and vintage clothes…

First I selected animal shots that fit the group photo and corrected the light on them to make them fit in. Then I took a rough selection of the animal and pasted it into the group shot and used masks to clean up around them and to set them correctly infront or behind objects.

When I had a clean color version I used Lightroom to work creatively to get the aged vintage look I wanted.  In the Developement module I used the preset “cream tone”  but customized it by slightly changing the saturation of some colors such as green and yellow.

Back in Photoshop I added the framing and text.

Edited: June 12th, 2011

Shifting Background Color to Highlight your Subject

Often I am photographing animals that are coloured in natural tones or neutrals.  While the tones and textures are always interesting, sometimes the background colours distract away from the beauty of my subject.  Manatees, dolphins, and whales in my underwater photography have this problem, but I also have this situation with African birds and mammals.

I have been working with ways to improve the processing of these types of photos so that I get an image that draws the viewer to the special features of the subject .

Here I have two photos of African birds: the lilac breasted roller and the grey hornbill.  Both photos feature a brilliant clear blue sky, but unlike the very flashy roller, the grey hornbill does not grab the eye because the colourful sky is such a contrast to the neutrals of the bird.

My basic technique is to mute down just the blue in this photo.  There are multiple ways to do this in Photoshop, Lightroom, and other tools, but each will boil down to the same basic change.

After a small adjustment to the Exposure Curve,  I accessed the tool (in this case Color in Lightroom’s Development Module) which gives me access to the three aspects of  color – Hue, Saturation, and Luminance  for each of the 8 ranges of color (red, orange, yellow, etc)

The grey hornbill has no blue pigment on him, so I did not need to do any selection to limit my changes only to the sky.  If this was the case, I would probably choose to use the advanced selection tools and options in Photoshop rather than Lightroom.

I worked with just the Blue sliders (not Aqua).  I could have desaturated the blue in the sky, but this would move it toward white. The better choice is to brighten the sky using the Luminance.  I also Saturated the blue to keep some color in there and shifted the Hue a few points to the right toward a more purple blue just because I preferred this .

Now the Grey Hornbill is the centre of interest and one can note the texture of the feathers and the subtle coloration.

A simple balancing of elements in the image can turn a average photo into a brilliant and intimate portrait.

Edited: May 28th, 2011

Using Lightroom’s more advanced tools to clean and image

Lightroom has some great editing tools in their Develop module, but I found myself always going for the first couple of tools (White Balance, Exposure).  These are the simplest and most basic adjustments, but if you venture down the list you will find tools that achieve similar goals, but with more refinement.

On this photo of a running cheetah I challenged myself to enhance the photo without using white balance and exposure.

Since the photo is a bit flat and color was washed out  I tried pushing the Recovery slider up. Recovery is a great tool for restoring color to washed out skies. In this photo I was happy to see that it restored much of the colors especially in the red spectrum.  Next I wanted to darken the blacks . I could have used either the Black Clipping slider or the Shadows on the tone curve.  I used the tone curve and at the same time increased the Highlights a touch to bring out the white in the cheetah’s face and belly.

To help pop the cheetah out away from the similar colored background, I went way down into the color balance tools.   The biggest change I made was to the Luminance of the Orange range. This change darkened the soil around the cheetah and on the opposite bank creating a contrast between the cat’s color and the background immediately around the cat.  I also pushed the orange slightly to the left into the redder part of its range and pushed the yellow hues (which appear in the fur a bit) a tiny bit toward the yellow/green shades to further distinguish the cheetah from the soil.

The final touch was a little bump up in the Tone Curve of the lighter midtowns (Lights) to add light to the cheetah and a small increase in the clarity which is always my favourite for bringing out details.

By avoiding obvious correction tools I achieved a very satisfactory result and challenged myself to use the colors in the image to make more specific adjustments.  In Photoshop I would have used a different technique involving the LAB color space, but Lightroom provides non-destructive tools that are up to the challenge of difficult images.

Edited: May 9th, 2011