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Oh noes! I realized something was wrong with the workflow I was designing. Went back to sketches and BAM, fixed it.
Creating actions for future weddings is so much fun. Now I have pretty nice workflow developed.
New Presetr Fuji 400H preset as an import preset in Lightroom. Then I run the whole exported JPG folder through automated Photoshop action, which adds two Alienskin Exposure custom presets with film grain and a bit faded toning.
Most important part is the scaling, which I do atm. with the "Bicubic automatic" setting in Ps. It sharpens the grain to look even more like film.
I'm not after film look because it's film, but because it looks 'organic' (=more alive).
WORKFLOW:
5 exposures merge to HDR in CS4, save as 32bit Radiance
Toned mapped in Photomatix 3, Save as 8bit Tiff
Adjusted levels, Hi Pass, Noise Reduction, Borders and Texts in CS4, save as Jpg
So today I noticed that the Beta 2 for Adobe Lightroom 3 was out, and I decided to give it a shot. Never really understanding what was that different between LR and Bridge/ACR, I decided to give it a try. What the heck, can't beat the price.
Well, thus far, I love it. I did everything to the image posted here in LR (including uploading it to Flickr!), and it was fairly intuitive for someone already familiar with Bridge/ACR. I LOVE the brushes, too! My only concern is that since I can do so much in LR, I will be lazy and not go into PS when I only anticipate making minor adjustments there.
The second purpose of this post is to invite you all to the Disney Photo Challenge Group. While I'm sure many of you are already members, for those who aren't, this is a light-hearted group with topical challenges. It's not an ordinary "awards" group nor is it a critique group. It's more a fun and community type group...it also happens to be my favorite group on Flickr. So if you haven't checked it out, give it a shot; you might have a good time there, too!
Karolina & Jacek - wedding session at Gdynia Orłowo
I must admit that I developed Delicious Recipes firstly for myself ;)
I just couldn't stand so many hours it took me to create satisfying colors through Capture NX2, so I struggled to find other way for processing with my beloved colors. And finally I developed them in Lightroom 4 with Color Efex Pro :)
Now I have such an easy way to get my RAW files developed. Now it takes 4-7 hours of work from import to LR to export for a 380-450 wedding. ( Time depends on lighting conditions and retouch needed ). Before, in CaptureNX 2 it took me rather 20-35 hours and it was definitely worth it, as colors were brilliant, but so time-consuming!
I share all the details of my actual workflow for Lightroom 4/5 + Color Efex Pro 4 in Delicious Recipes. All the instructions and tips, combined with all the recipes and presets needed to get beautiful results fast:
www.deliciouspresets.com/delicious-recipes-lightroom-colo...
Ajustes Basicos
Temperatura 4800 Matiz -2
Exposicion +0.15
Contraste +23
Iluminaciones -93
Sombras +30
Blancos +14
Negros -21
Claridad +36
HSL
Rojo -6
Naranja -28
Amarillos -37
Verdes -30
Aguamarinas -54
Azul +26
Purpura +17
Magenta +4
(Pestaña convertir a escala de grises)
Curvas
Iluminaciones -17
Claros -10
Oscuros +8
Sombras +39
Dividir Tonos Iluminaciones
Tono 57
Saturacion 10
Dividir Tonos Sombras
Tono 51
Saturacion 18
Equilibrio 0
Enfoque
Cantidad 56
Radio 0.8
Detalle 20
Mascara 13
Reduccion de ruido
Luminancia 43
Detalle de luminancia 52
Contraste de luminancia 39
Grano
Cantidad 20
Tamaño 21
Rugosidad 28
Viñeteado
Cantidad -78
Punto medio 10
Redondez -32
Suavizar 93
Iluminaciones 0
Still life vegetables in preparation for the salsa.
One Canon 600EX-RT, camera left, bounced off the ceiling, at full power.
The Notre-Dame-d'Espérance church (Eglise du Suquet) is a Catholic parish church located in the town of Cannes, France.
It is dedicated to Notre-Dame on the Place de la Castre in the Suquet district, and has been classified as a historical monument since July 28, 1937 [Wikipedia.org]
Today, I embarked on an adventure with a group of hikers and explorers, and we spent the day exploring miles of slot canyons, many of which were new to me, and most of which were unnamed and relatively or completely un-photographed. All this in places most Californians are unaware exist at all, much less in their own state, even less their own county!
We were joking about how we could all go back home and when friends asked us what we did over the weekend, we'd say, "Oh, a bunch of Indiana Jones type stuff, you know…" To which they would respond, "Haha yeah right, that boring, eh?" Well, here's a small bit of proof for the doubters! Haha.
The more we explored, the more slot canyons we found. We soon felt as though we were in the midst of a massive living organism, the arteries and veins of which were the slot canyons. In a way, that's a good metaphor. Slot canyons exist in the desert, and are entirely formed by rain - the fewer than 5 inches of rain that falls in an average year. These rains feed an entire desert ecosystem, much of which depends on those rains for opportunities for resupply or reproduction. Often, it is not the average rain that creates them, but rather one massive deluge from a thunderstorm lasting mere minutes which creates the powerful and violent flash floods which rage through these arteries in the rock, filling them with water, rock, and mud in seconds. If you've ever seen a video of a mudslide, you can get a small idea of the sheer power of these flash floods. Often after a single flash flood, a canyon may be scarcely recognizable in places because of the transformation. The flood will raise or lower the floor of the canyon, change the shape of the walls, move boulders around, and more. All in just minutes.
Perhaps most incredible, however, was not the canyons at all, but the strata they were formed inside of. The entire area was composed of wildly varied layers of conglomerate, sandstone and mudstone, which were layered in strata with layers of stone pebbles embedded in them arranged vertically or on various steep angles of say 45-80 degrees! Further, the layers were curved or wavy. Now, gravity only goes one way, straight down. So you need to realize what this implies: that this entire area was soft mud, all at the same time, at one point in time, and then that mud was violently pressurized, forcing it into these shapes, before the waters receded and they dried, forming the stone we see today. Only then could the flash floods even begin their work crafting these masterpieces.
The light that fills these canyons makes them incredibly varied and beautiful to behold. The key to the colors is very simply reflected light. The sun shines directly on upper and exposed areas of the canyon, which then reflect that light in a bright golden color into the shaded areas. Each time the light bounces off a canyon wall, a portion of the color spectrum is lost, which has the effect of making each opposing wall reflect a different hue, with the walls working their way through the color spectrum from warm oranges to cold blues.
The human eye can see at least a portion of this effect, which makes a walk through these canyons in good light a thing of beauty to behold. Usually, most people don't take the time to allow their eyes to adjust to the light and really be mindful and present to observe the colors, so they miss out. This is why it is important not to rush through but to take your time and really be observant and in the moment, rather than rushing to much to see what is around the next bend.
Modern cameras really excel at capturing these color subtleties. However, you might not realize this because they generally try to "compensate" for the "too warm" or "too cold" colors, by automatically adjusting their white balance to cancel out the effect in an effort to maintain color neutrality. Further, they are programmed to expose the scene to an average value of 18%. This is great for creating a balanced exposure, but it all but ensures that the contrast of the scene will not be ideal. With bad contrast, the human eye is unable to correctly judge colors, which makes for a bad image and viewing experience.
So as part of my post-capture workflow, I manually adjust the color spectrum and black and white points to bring out the best of the color spectrum and contrast that was present there and accentuate it in a way that the human eye can easily appreciate.
This also gives me an opportunity to bring my artistic vision to the scene so that I as an artist can show you what I visualized in the field. My goal is rarely (if ever) to bring you a robotic representational image that is enslaved to some Japanese engineer or programmer's (the people who made the camera) algorithmic interpretation of reality, but rather to bring to life a pre-visualized work of art that conveys what I felt there in that moment.
I feel that it is extremely important to differentiate between representational photography and fine art photography, as the two are to photography as objective journalism and subjective fantasy novels are to writing. Each has its place, but while one is limited to the conveyance of literal facts, the other allows us to bring our creativity and humanity to bear in order to show others a world as we envision it in our mind's eye. This is the role of art in photography.
It is through art that photography can transcend its limited existence as a technical capture medium, and ascend to a higher one as a medium of creative expression. When photographers say things like, "I am just in the right place at the right time," or "I'm just operating the camera, nature or fate makes the scene," they mislead viewers and do humanity a disservice by eliminating artistic interpretation and creative vision – the vital human elements – from the equation. If a drone could have been programmed to make the image, why was a human needed at all? Humans bring creativity and imagination to the table, and those very things make the image and give it emotional meaning and relevance.
As a result, the fine art world often fails to take photography seriously as an art medium, and who can blame them when we have a lot of self-professing robotic machinery operators producing and selling images, and placing emphasis on automated technology rather than inspired artistry? An artist with a camera can and should use it in much the same way a illustrator uses a pen or a painter uses a brush, and should not be ashamed to do so. This is the role of humanity in photography.
The workflow for a particular project had to be documented for all of the different parties to approve and sign off on. Completed in 2004
I recently add the 5th monitor set-up but to find out the i1 Display Pro can only calibrate 4 monitors at one time, it is a hassle process when the Xrite calibration program can not support 5 monitors at the same time, will change back to 4 monitors setup as my standard editing workflow :-)
Dell XPS 8500 i7-3700 @3.4GHz, 16GB
Windows 8.1 64-bits
AMD FirePro W8000 (FireGL V) 4GB
U2713H AdobeRGB
U2711H AdobeRGB
U2412M sRGB
S2240T sRGB 10 points touch screen
NI GO RI Sake (Japan)
Workflow & Credits
Track created on the Suno website.
Image generated with AI.
Concept and lyrics developed from my original idea, brainstormed and refined with ChatGPT.
This project was created with full AI assistance — openly, deliberately, and as part of the creative process.
Intro (chanted, ritual, slow build)
Raise the banner
Feel the ground
Stone remembers
We are crowned
Verse 1 (marching, heavy)
Carved in steel and winter flame
Names endure, outlast the pain
Every scar a spoken vow
We stand as one, here and now
Runes are burning in the night
Guiding hands that held the line
Not forgotten, not erased
Every fall became our place
Pre-Chorus (building tension)
Hear the drums beneath the stone
Every step we’re not alone
Chorus (anthem, powerful, chant-ready)
THIS IS OUR KINGDOM
BUILT FROM THE PAST
WEAR THE MEMORY
FORGED TO LAST
NO SURRENDER
NO REGRET
THE CROWN IS HEAVY
BUT WE DON’T BEND
Post-Chorus (call & response, playful but strong)
HEY! — Remember!
HEY! — Stand tall!
HEY! — Together!
WE WILL NOT FALL
Verse 2 (faster, more kinetic)
From the fire, from the snow
From the blood of long ago
Voices rise, old and new
What they died for — we continue
Not a throne of gold or lies
But iron will and open eyes
History is not a chain
It’s the strength inside our name
Bridge (breakdown → ritual chant)
Strike the stone
Mark the ground
Speak the names
Hear the sound
(half-time, deep)
Memory is power
Power is the crown
Final Chorus (max energy)
THIS IS OUR KINGDOM
NO TIME ERASED
WE CARRY THE ASH
WE KEEP THE FLAME
NO FORGETTING
NO GOODBYE
WE RULE THE NOW
THEY NEVER DIE
Outro (chant fading, epic)
Carved in us
Eternal sign
Past and future
Intertwined
Many people who know me know that I love History. Always have done since I was a kid and even got a minor degree in History (well since you wondered, I majored in Media Communications - got me nowhere). If there is one thing I really wish I could do, it is go back in time and take lots of pictures. I've always imagined how major historical events really look and you can tell by some of my Flickr stream that I really enjoy going to ye olde places like Warwick Castle and Hampton Court Palace to try and capture the history there. This weekend gave me a little opportunity to capture some historical magic. The town I grew up near, Newbury, will probably still be known in a few hundred years time for being the site of 2 English Civil War battles (1643 and 1644 respectively). Today's HDR picture is of the 2nd Battle of Newbury re-enactment that took place recently at the Newbury Showground by the Sealed Knot group. It was on a bit of a whim I decided to attend but so glad I did now because I came away with a lot more photos than I anticipated. I have more pictures to come from that day so I won't waste all my words on it now. I hope you like it, I did this HDR from a single RAW file and put it through the works. More tomorrow!
MINOR MILESTONE! Today is exactly 1 year since my very first Flickr upload. A lot has changed in a year and I like to think my photography has come from nowhere to a place I'm quite proud of and will of course always keep learning. Thank you to all my contacts and friends who have helped me learn so much about how to take a picture, this one's for you! Ahhh....
Workflow:
* Reduced Sharpening to 0 and exported directly from Lightroom to Photomatix
* Tone-mapped and levels adjusted in Photomatix
* Back in Lightroom, I turned the vibrancy of the colours down slightly so as not to look so shiny and modern and also increased slightly highlights, lights, shadows and decreased slightly darks.
* Increased Sharpening to 46 and Luminance Noise Reduction to 43
* Opened up in Photoshop CS5 where I did some spot healing and clone stamping to eliminate a person on the far right. Further clone stamping to keep the fence in the background consistent
* Extra noise reduction work to tackle the really difficult bits such as the smoke, using Gaussian Blur and layer masking
And Voila!