Okay, what areas do I need to improve on.

[spacecadet]

6 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

 

Tropics outdoors, not so much. 

 

Quite so.

Though when I came back from Dubai I had to come up with a preset to counteract the airborne dust. I called it dubaicreek. I still have it.

[MizBrown]

4 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

MizB, do you have the NIX Collection? I used to but don't have it at the moment. I used to start my edit in LR Classic, save a tiff and move it to PS, sometimes using NIX that was in PS Filters. 

 

I've said this before, but I don't have any set editing pattern. I look at an image and see what I want to do with it, then I find the tools to make that happen. I never noticed the Auto edit setting in LR until Mark mentioned it. I use it a lot now with some adjustments. 

 

Yes, I have the Nix Collection (it also works with Lightroom Classic and DXO PhotoLab).   Haven't spent the time working with them.   I used to use Auto adjustments in LRC and PS, but often in the tropics when the sun's out, the subject is in the shade, and LRC's Auto assumes you're worried about the highlight details.    I've been trying Auto on some of the photos I've been editing and indoors with fill flash, it works.   Auto worked on one Mexico City shot except that it lost highlight detail on distant buildings, so I reversed it (not on Alamy, but may submit later).

[MizBrown]

1 minute ago, spacecadet said:

Quite so.

Though when I came back from Dubai I had to come up with a preset to counteract the airborne dust. I called it dubaicreek. I still have it.

 

I use Clarity for the mists for which this town is so famous.

[spacecadet]

13 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

 

I use Clarity for the mists for which this town is so famous.

dubaicreek was 100(!) clarity and 20 saturation, a bit extreme and you have to watch out for edge effects. I don't often go above 50 clarity nowadays.

Having it as an import preset saves a bit of time.

Edited December 23, 2020 by spacecadet

[John Mitchell]

15 minutes ago, MizBrown said:

 

I use Clarity for the mists for which this town is so famous.

 

One of my best-selling Nicaraguan images is a misty landscape taken from a roadside lookout on the highway between Matagalpa and Jinotega. The cloud forest is really beautiful.

Edited December 23, 2020 by John Mitchell

[Ed Rooney]

On your image of the man with his two daughters that we were talking about, I would have used the NIK V2 tool to darken the shirt on the girl on our left. It's burned out and it draws the eye to it when the viewer's attention should be on the three faces. 

 

Shooting editorial stock for Alamy, everything I do is shot handheld in available light, up to ISO 1,600. I still have a tripod, a tablepod, and some lighting . . . but never use them. (Meaning almost never.)

[MizBrown]

14 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

On your image of the man with his two daughters that we were talking about, I would have used the NIK V2 tool to darken the shirt on the girl on our left. It's burned out and it draws the eye to it when the viewer's attention should be on the three faces. 

 

Shooting editorial stock for Alamy, everything I do is shot handheld in available light, up to ISO 1,600. I still have a tripod, a tablepod, and some lighting . . . but never use them. (Meaning almost never.)

 

Tried and got a slightly dirty shirt that's a bit greener, which may have been the reality.    Handheld, 55mm lens, no flash for any of that series or for most of the Mexico trip.   I'll have to explore V2 more, but I can do the same things with the mask brush thing in LRC.

 

Someone posted a link to a photographer's lessons on what does and doesn't work in photos, and light areas near the edge of the frame were one of the things he said distracted people from what was in the frame, led the eye out. 

 

 

John Mitchell, was that the shots of Selva Negra?  

 

 

 

 

[John Mitchell]

4 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

MizB, do you have the NIX Collection? I used to but don't have it at the moment. I used to start my edit in LR Classic, save a tiff and move it to PS, sometimes using NIX that was in PS Filters. 

 

 

 

Edo, are you referring to the NIK collection?

[Ed Rooney]

yes