May 2022 - Favourite uploads.

[spacecadet]

17 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

Haze removal

I use clarity quite a bit (50 in that image, my usual setting)- I IIRC haze is the improved version of that targeted as you say on midtones. 

I'll be staying with 5.7. I won't be renting software in the foreseeable.

[Bryan]

3 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Bryan, if you have Photoshop, there's a very effective tool that I suggest you explore to improve brightness levels and contrast.

 

Open Image at top of page > click on Adjustments > click on Brightness/Contrast.

 

I found this tool better, more intuitive, than those that come up earlier in LrC and PS. I look at my images there as my very last editing step.

 

Edo

Thanks Edo, I normally start in LR adjusting the brightness, colour balance, clarity etc, then move over to PS where I typically use layers and pick out the sky etc by colour, I almost always us a linear contrast layer to add a bit of punch - although that is sometimes a bit harsh, for example with skin tones.  The controversial image above was well overexposed in camera, ( I had foolishly maintained a +1 stop over from a previous photo), and I struggled to get a reasonable result.  Was in two minds about uploading, but I've seen far worse sell !

Edited May 10, 2022 by Bryan

[Betty LaRue]

4 hours ago, Bryan said:

Thanks Edo, I normally start in LR adjusting the brightness, colour balance, clarity etc, then move over to PS where I typically use layers and pick out the sky etc by colour, I almost always us a linear contrast layer to add a bit of punch - although that is sometimes a bit harsh, for example with skin tones.  The controversial image above was well overexposed in camera, ( I had foolishly maintained a +1 stop over from a previous photo), and I struggled to get a reasonable result.  Was in two minds about uploading, but I've seen far worse sell !

I think it is fine, Bryan. Maybe a touch of contrast would do, but fine.

[Allan Bell]

One or two may be from late April due to extended QC times.

 

Family walking dog along country lane

 

 

Man resting in sun speakers corner cornhill lincoln

 

Gold Rapport Gentlemans pocket watch

 

Statue of Lord Tennyson poet and his faithfull dog Karenina in Lincoln cathedral grounds

 

High street looking north to stonebow and uphill to lincoln cathedral

 

 

Allan

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Allan Bell

[NYCat]

10 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

Man resting in sun speakers corner cornhill lincoln

 

 

OK. So I haven't had my coffee yet and couldn't figure out what "sun speakers" are. 

 

Paulette

[Allan Bell]

37 minutes ago, NYCat said:

 

OK. So I haven't had my coffee yet and couldn't figure out what "sun speakers" are. 

 

Paulette

 

Man resting in sun, speakers corner, cornhill, lincoln.

Better?

 

Allan

 

[Ed Rooney]

 

What is the secret when capturing a Pizza Margherita at a pizzeria? I bring my own basil. 😀

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Ed Rooney

[Michael Ventura]

51 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

What is the secret when capturing a Pizza Margherita? I bring my own basil. 😀

 

 

 

One of my favorite pizzas! Looks great! One tiny bit of advice, always try and get the whole dish/pizza in the shot, buyers often do cut outs and they need the whole item to do that.  

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

What is the secret when capturing a Pizza Margherita at a pizzeria? I bring my own basil. 😀

 

 

 

 

Basil Brush or Basil Faulty?

 

Allan

 

[NYCat]

2 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Man resting in sun, speakers corner, cornhill, lincoln.

Better?

 

Allan

 

 

Even without coffee I think I would have grasped that. I thought you would appreciate the humor (humour).

 

Paulette

[Allan Bell]

3 minutes ago, NYCat said:

 

Even without coffee I think I would have grasped that. I thought you would appreciate the humor (humour).

 

Paulette

 

I did. I put the laughing smiley up on your post. Clarified it in case others did not grasp it.

 

Allan

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Allan Bell

[Ed Rooney]

 

I agree, Michael. And I do do that. But part of my full-pizza frames yesterday were unsharp in part this time. Understand, I'm not on assignment and this is my lunch. I just checked and all my pizza pic sales are cropped into. Hmm. 

 

I bought a basil bush for this and intended it to be my very last pizza pic (I have too many pizza and pasta images). I may have go for it one more time. 🤨

Edited May 11, 2022 by Ed Rooney

[NYCat]

I knew you would be understanding, Allan.

 

Paulette

[Betty LaRue]

3 hours ago, NYCat said:

 

OK. So I haven't had my coffee yet and couldn't figure out what "sun speakers" are. 

 

Paulette

Glad I wasn’t the only one trying to figure that out. Maybe the man could only talk when the sun shined on him? 😉

[Michael Ventura]

36 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

I agree, Michael. And I do do that. But part of my full-pizza frames yesterday were unsharp in part this time. Understand, I'm not on assignment and this is my lunch. I just checked and all my pizza pic sales are cropped into. Hmm. 

 

I bought a basil bush for this and intended it to be my very last pizza pic (I have too many pizza and pasta images). I may have go for it one more time. 🤨

 

Never too many pizzas!  I do that too, I crop in and also shoot the whole dish.  Aesthetically, I prefer the cropped in.  But most of all, I prefer to eat em!

[Dave Richards]

Wellington Street, London.

Foregoing the 24-70 and taking my somewhat neglected 14-24 lens out for a bit of exercise!

 

 

 

[John Morrison]

A cricket match in progress at Crakehall, one of the prettier grounds in Yorkshire (for American readers, think “baseball on valium”). I got a good selection of shots, over a lazy afternoon. It was only when I got them loaded onto the Mac, back home, that I saw that the sky on every shot was full - and I mean full - of midges. Far too many to clone out. So I salvaged a couple of shots, and ditched the rest. I’ll be back another day; it’s a great spot…

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by John Morrison

[Marianne]

On 09/05/2022 at 08:22, spacecadet said:

That was my usual highlight reduction in LR ( and my secret sauce as well) but it has flattened the jpeg a bit- I would expect it to work better on the RAW. I was a fan of grads until I discovered it.

If there were any colour in the sky I might have done a bit on the blue in HSL, except those blu elements centre frame would have hurt the eyes. Maybe just an adjustment brush saturation boost over the sky.

There may be nicer things in LR now but I'm still on LR5.7.

 

I like it light - allows for copy space - since the sky is gray.  With the LR CC latest update you can now choose just the sky - even better than the grad filter if you don't have a straight horizon.  The newest version of LR also lets you go back to your filters very easily and sets them up sort of like having layers in PS. And if you had PS CC you could use sky replacement and turn a gray day into a beautiful one. I have folders of skies ready to use - I don't use the premade ones in the program but there are plenty to choose from. It works really well even when you have tricky tree branches - the AI is kind of amazing. 

 

The updates to LR and PS in the past couple of years are huge. Worth the investment I think (disclaimer: I've gotten them free the past few years via AS program for those who meet certain goals which I first did with 300+ photos so not difficult - but I'd gladly pay $119/year for it). 

 

You can do the free trial and see what you think - just be sure not to let it replace your current version in case you want to go back. 

[Marianne]

On 10/05/2022 at 06:26, spacecadet said:

I use clarity quite a bit (50 in that image, my usual setting)- I IIRC haze is the improved version of that targeted as you say on midtones. 

I'll be staying with 5.7. I won't be renting software in the foreseeable.

 

Your choice. If you're only using it for stock, then it may not be worth it, but I do a lot of fine art and I want to have the best software choices. I can now do so much in LR Classic that I used to have to do in PS, so that alone speeds up my workflow tremendously and the extras in both LR Classic and PS make processing fun.

 

I played around with the newest neural art filters and my first attempt sold to a hospital as soon as I shared it with an agent, with two more of the art-filtered images selling within the month (one was a 66 x 24 panorama). 

 

BTW, you can now make panoramas directly from LR Classic - I do that a lot with photos and they have been good sellers via the same agent. 

 

LR Classic is now at 11.3.1 - you might want to check it out. But it's your prerogative to stick with the one you own. The price of the Photo bundle (LR, LR Classic, RAW, PS and some additional apps has not changed since they went to the subscription model. Adobe made AdobeMax online and free the past two years due to Covid and they also had a Discord channel with paying contests and lots of learning opportunities started during Covid and continuing. They even sent me an (Adobe branded) Christmas gift. So, I am not concerned that they'll suddenly hike the price (the price of the all-apps did go up slightly this year - but that's very pricey to begin with). I figure at $119 a year it's cheaper than what I was spending to update to the newer version which I only did infrequently (after 2 or 3 updates). (I know, I'm getting it free, but I paid for it the first year or two after they went to subscription and would do so again) 

 

 

[Ed Rooney]

On 11/05/2022 at 14:39, Michael Ventura said:

One of my favorite pizzas! Looks great! One tiny bit of advice, always try and get the whole dish/pizza in the shot, buyers often do cut outs and they need the whole item to do that.  

 

Here's a wild coincidence for this Friday the 13th. This closeup of a pizza I snapped in Montreal popped in as a sale this morning. Unfortunately, my 40% is not enough to buy a slice. The pizzeria supplied the basil. The buyer is in Finland, where they love eating pizza and dancing the tango. The Fins also speak very good English. 

 

[spacecadet]

15 hours ago, Marianne said:

Your choice. If you're only using it for stock, then it may not be worth it

Quite so. This comes up fairly regularly, I say I'm still on 5.7 and people say I don't know what I'm missing. I'm sure I don't, but it is mostly for stock, and I don't need another monthly bill. Incidentally it's £120 here, somewhat more than you pay, but that's by the by. You could say I just don't like the idea of having software that can be deactivated. I only use PS for birthday cards.

I did look, and it needs Windows 10, so that would rule me out anyway even if I were inclined as I'm still on 7. I can't meet the RAM spec either.

[Alan Beastall]

 

100 years of the Austin 7 on tour in the Derbyshire Peak District.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wiskerke]

Maybe a bit early in the day for most.

Chances of sales are slim: a small Mexican fast food chain; this one in West Memphis Arkansas. Across the Mississippi from the real Memphis TN.

 

wim

[Jill Morgan]

Australia has so many amazing birds.

 

Jill

 

[Betty LaRue]

7 hours ago, wiskerke said:

Maybe a bit early in the day for most.

Chances of sales are slim: a small Mexican fast food chain; this one in West Memphis Arkansas. Across the Mississippi from the real Memphis TN.

 

wim

The year we took my mother with us on an east coast trip, on the way, Interstate 40, we picnicked on cold fried chicken on the east bank of the Mississippi near the Interstate watching the big boats go by.