View allAll Photos Tagged hdrsoft
Butterfly at Kelsey Spring
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
Horned toad
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
Kelsey Spring Trail
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
I got lucky on this sunrise as around 10-15 minutes before the light show a set of clouds swept in from the north and lit up this famous cliff seascape in Sydney, Australia.
HDR Software used- Photomatix 5 Get 15% off Photomatix with the code LukeZemePhotography
Other Software Used: OnOne Photosuite 9
I wrote up a blog on this image in my gallery on photography website here Gallery Link
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Software and Presets I personally use in my photography
Lightroom replacement(alternative) software - Luminar! Use code "lukezeme" for a 15% discount -Skylum's Luminar Link
Preset collections, Photography tutorials and loads more , USE code "lukezemephotography" for 10% discount - Preset collections, Photography tutorials Link
Best HDR software on the market - Use code "lukezeme" for a 15% discount! - Skylum's Aurora HDR 2019 Link
Topaz has an incredible Photoshop Plugins collection + Studio for anything you can think of - Topaz Labs Link
The BEST Time Lapse software on the market. This software makes creating incredible Time Lapse videos easy for anyone - LRTimeLapse5 Link
On1 has been delivering amazing photography software for a long time, check out their Suite and plugins here - On1 Software Link
Get Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom on the Photography Plan, a cheaper option for photographers :-) - Adobe Photography Plan Link
My 50 best Lightroom presets in 1 pack, including 10x HDR presets - Get Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom on the Photography Plan, a cheaper option for photographers :-) - Luke Zeme's Premium Preset Collection Link
Sell your own prints online with a Zenfolio online print shop, this is how I sell my prints online - Sell your own prins online Link
Easily build a website with WIX, they have beautiful templates that make the whole process a breeze - Build your own website with WIX Link
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The central square overlooking the Commerzbank skyscraper in Frankfurt Am Main, lots of colors here and was lucky enough to catch the moon top of the frame. 3 exposures and adjusted in lightroom with hdrsoft's 32 bit plugin - shot with the trusty 17-40mmL and 5d mark II
A photogenic crocodile at the Cape Fear Serpentarium in Wilmington, North Carolina.
If you would like to read more about this photo, please visit my blog post:
Using a Nikon D700, 16-35 mm lens, Taken at the Lower Anteloupe Canyon (Slots Canyon) near Page, AZ. 7 exposures, 1 stop apart, then merged with Nik HDRsoft pro and processed in LightRoom.
The grass was so soft and fluffy on this coastal headland where I was able to lie down, read and enjoy the view. There was a girl who came and sat by me on the grass and faced the sun to meditate, a perfect place for it with the sounds of the ocean and the feel of the salty winds. Down below about 50 surfers were all lined up catching waves that gained height and momentum from wrapping around the headland like a sling shot. Some local surfers told me that the good waves used to be on the other side of this headland but huge storms had reshaped the sand bars removing 3-4 metres in some areas.
HDR Software used- Photomatix 5 Get 15% off Photomatix with the code LukeZemePhotography
Other Software Used: OnOne Photosuite 9
The complete write up on this image is here at www.lukezeme.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Software and Presets I personally use in my photography
Lightroom replacement(alternative) software - Luminar! Use code "lukezeme" for a 15% discount -Skylum's Luminar Link
Preset collections, Photography tutorials and loads more , USE code "lukezemephotography" for 10% discount - Preset collections, Photography tutorials Link
Best HDR software on the market - Use code "lukezeme" for a 15% discount! - Skylum's Aurora HDR 2019 Link
Topaz has an incredible Photoshop Plugins collection + Studio for anything you can think of - Topaz Labs Link
The BEST Time Lapse software on the market. This software makes creating incredible Time Lapse videos easy for anyone - LRTimeLapse5 Link
On1 has been delivering amazing photography software for a long time, check out their Suite and plugins here - On1 Software Link
Get Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom on the Photography Plan, a cheaper option for photographers :-) - Adobe Photography Plan Link
My 50 best Lightroom presets in 1 pack, including 10x HDR presets - Get Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom on the Photography Plan, a cheaper option for photographers :-) - Luke Zeme's Premium Preset Collection Link
Sell your own prints online with a Zenfolio online print shop, this is how I sell my prints online - Sell your own prins online Link
Easily build a website with WIX, they have beautiful templates that make the whole process a breeze - Build your own website with WIX Link
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kelsey Spring Trail
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
Kelsey Spring Trail
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
5-frame HDR shot with a Pentax K20D. HDR generated and tone mapped in Photomatix. Metadata refined in MS Pro Photo Tools and Adobe Lightroom.
Kelsey Spring Trail
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
To me "Gap Bluff" looks like a giant puzzle that needs putting back together and all the pieces have just toppled over. This amazing natural formation is a mere 15 minutes drive from the city CBD on the south side of the Harbour. There is plenty to do in this area and lots to see and bondi beach is only 5 minutes further down the coast. Sydney keeps on blowing my mind at how beautiful it can be.
HDR Software used- Photomatix 5 Get 15% off Photomatix with the code LukeZemePhotography
Other Software Used: OnOne Photosuite 9
Read the rest of the blog post on luke zeme photography
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Software and Presets I personally use in my photography
Lightroom replacement(alternative) software - Luminar! Use code "lukezeme" for a 15% discount -Skylum's Luminar Link
Preset collections, Photography tutorials and loads more , USE code "lukezemephotography" for 10% discount - Preset collections, Photography tutorials Link
Best HDR software on the market - Use code "lukezeme" for a 15% discount! - Skylum's Aurora HDR 2019 Link
Topaz has an incredible Photoshop Plugins collection + Studio for anything you can think of - Topaz Labs Link
The BEST Time Lapse software on the market. This software makes creating incredible Time Lapse videos easy for anyone - LRTimeLapse5 Link
On1 has been delivering amazing photography software for a long time, check out their Suite and plugins here - On1 Software Link
Get Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom on the Photography Plan, a cheaper option for photographers :-) - Adobe Photography Plan Link
My 50 best Lightroom presets in 1 pack, including 10x HDR presets - Get Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom on the Photography Plan, a cheaper option for photographers :-) - Luke Zeme's Premium Preset Collection Link
Sell your own prints online with a Zenfolio online print shop, this is how I sell my prints online - Sell your own prins online Link
Easily build a website with WIX, they have beautiful templates that make the whole process a breeze - Build your own website with WIX Link
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An old favorite, this time taken in the early afternoon.
HDR image generated from three exposures (0 EV, +2 EV, -2 EV) using Photomatix Pro.
Sometimes it's easy to spot the tourists. A prototypical Dad-Mom-Son-Daughter walked past the monument, and then they stopped and conferred for a moment. The teenage son then doubled around, peered at the name carved into the side of the base, and then he trotted back to his family and made his report.
All I heard was "[russianrussianrussian] 'George Wash-ing-ton' [russian]."
It charmed the hell out of me. It was a cheery reminder that there are parts of the world in which George Washington is not an immediately-recognizable figure.
As I test the Nikon P7000, I'm navigating a common problem: I have to note the difference between "general features" and "Andy features." I love Feature X...but is it something that a non-Andy user would go for?
The P7000's command dial falls into this category. I love it. A pocket camera doesn't have a lot of room for buttons and controls, which forces the designers to bury some of the most useful functions deep inside submenus. On the P7000, though, I can set up a bracketed exposure in barely the amount of time it takes for me to think "I bet that I'm going to lose all of the detail in those clouds; I'd better bracket this one."
Great! But some people are thrown off by cameras with tons of buttons and dials. I've only been shooting with the P7000 for a few days now. It's got so many controls that I suspect that one of these knobs flips up to reveal another knob and button underneath it. I need to remember that some users don't like that.
Hmm. OK, I'll be pondering this in the coming week.
I use bracketing all the time. Sure, I pretend that my biggest photographic influences are Ansel Adams and Weegee and Henri Cartier-Bresson but if pressed, I have to admit that (at least when I'm on the site and clicking the shutter) I'm actually emulating Al Bean and Gene Cernan and Buzz Aldrin and all of the other Apollo astronauts. I have limited excursion time; I need to collect as much data as possible. "Results" come after splashdown, when I'll have all the time in the world to crunch the numbers.
So I always shoot RAW. And if the shot seems like it's going to challenge the camera's exposure meter in any way, I'll take a moment to shoot three or five bracketed shots. At least one of these frames will be good...plus, I can try processing the set as an HDR image. Maybe it's a waste of time but I'm only wasting, like, two seconds on the bracketing.
Whereas if I get home and find that the one shot I took won't come to life no matter how many times I shock it with the Photoshop paddles...oh dear God. "You don't have a decent night shot of the Space Shuttle sitting on the launch pad illuminated by searchlights," I'll say to myself. "But man, during those three seconds that you didn't waste on bracketing...you really lived."
(I will be saying this sarcastically.)
Whoops, forgot to mention that this is an HDR image built from five exposures with HDRSoft's Photomatix app. The P7000 can shoot a bracketed sequence so rapidly that you don't necessarily need to lock the camera down to a tripod. So long as your hands are reasonably steady, the app can line up the images and make a nice, tight image.
Whoops(2), I've just noticed that there are a couple of blowouts in the clouds. OK, I'll fix that later.
Visit to Concrete City with fellow photographers: Curtis Solanick, Brian Bukeavich, Lewis De Joseph, Marty Straub and Dave Cohen.
Since purchasing MacPhun's new HDR software, AuroraHDR Pro over the holidays, I made sure to capture plenty of bracketed exposures to jump head-first into the program (I've used HDRsoft's Photomatix Pro dating back to late 2006)
Concrete City
Nanticoke, Pennsylvania
Thursday, January 7th, 2016
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A tree and bridge covered in LED lights, part of the 2011 Christmas Riverwalk decorations on the San Antonio Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas.
If you would like to read more about this photo, please visit my blog:
brianmoranhdr.blogspot.com/2014/12/another-riverwalk-chri...
Kelsey Spring Trail
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
Kelsey Spring Trail
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
5-frame HDR shot with a Pentax K20D. HDR generated and tone mapped in Photomatix. Metadata refined in MS Pro Photo Tools and Adobe Lightroom.
Kelsey Spring Trail
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
This was created using the Photomatix demo (in case the watermarking didn't tip you off): www.hdrsoft.com/
Nine individual exposures were combined into a stitched HDR image using PTGui Pro.
The result was tone mapped using Photomatix Pro.
Equipment:
- SEL1018 : E 10-18mm F4 OSS E-mount Wide Zoom Lens
- 62mm ZEIKOS ND-4 Filter
Parameters:
Software: Photomatix Pro version 5.0.1
Presets: Natural
Software: Software: Image Data converter Ver. 4.2.02.10112
Output
Save as type: TIFF Files(*.TIF)
Color space: sRGB 16 bit
Software: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.6
Basic
WB: Cloudy
Temp: 6500
Tint: +10
Tone
Highlights: -50
Presence
Vibrance: +20
Tone Curve
Region
Highlights: +38
Lights: +15
Shadows: -10
HSL
Hue
Yellow: -10
Saturation
Orange: -10
Yellow: +10
--------------------------------
Graduate Filter(M)
Exposure: -0.30
--------------------------------
Copy : 2
file: DSC08866-1
Kelsey Spring Trail
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
Kelsey Spring
2009-04-29: With most of the roads open around Flagstaff and a warm day in store, we decided to hike one of the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trails. We grabbed Deb Lauman and headed down Woody Mountain Road. Skimming Flagstaff Hikes
and the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness map, we decided to hike Kelsey Trail, which offered the potential for wildflowers according to Flagstaff Hikes. Flagstaff Hikes (5th edition) refers to Kelsey Trail #3 as Kelsey Spring Trail (from the trailhead to the spring) and Kelsey-Winter Cabin Trail (from the Kelsey Spring to Dorsey Spring). The trail sign at the trailhead is labeled Kelsey Winter Trail, and other trail signs are marked Kelsey Tr. No. 3. Additionally, the book refers to Little LO Trail as Geronimo Spring Trail. I haven't looked at the 6th edition of the book yet, which includes 97 trails (the 5th edition lists 146), so I can't speak to the differences between the two editions.
From Kelsey Trailhead and early on in the trail there are great views of Sycamore Canyon. A beaten path heads along the rim of the canyon, heading left from the parking area. We headed down the trail, which dives quickly into the canyon through gorgeous ponderosa pine forest. The trail is well maintained and well marked with signs at the springs and trail junctions. There is evidence of very old tree blazes marking the trail, but these are no longer necessary to follow the trail. Kelsey Spring is approximately 0.5 mile from the trailhead. A pipe from the spring feeds a water trough. The spring was running, and bees and butterflies were flitting around the wet, marshy area surrounding the spring, and the wild flags were beginning to bloom.
Around 1.2 mile from the trailhead is a second spring, Babe's Hole Spring. Based on the map, it's approximately a 700' elevation drop from the trailhead to Babe's Hole Spring. The spring is marked with a sign, and theres a covered stone well protecting the spring. There appear to be irises growing here, but none were blooming yet. The spring was running. Another 0.10 mile from Babe's Hole is the junction of Kelsey and Little L O Trails. Little L O continues another 0.75 mile to bottom of Sycamore Canyon. Hoping for more views, we decided to continue along Kelsey Trail, which runs along the side of the canyon. We stopped at the top of the first rise and ate lunch in the remains of an old campsite.
The New Camera
This was my second real use of my new Pentax K20D. On the first hike using the camera, I'd shot photos in JPEG format, and was fairly pleased with the results. After a few more experiments at home, I decided for this hike to try shooting photos in RAW format instead of JPEG, and was incredibly pleased at the dynamic range I had to work with, collecting images nearly as good as generated HDRs (but without all the work of generating the HDRs). I took a few exposure bracketed shots using my Gorillapod tripod and the camera's wireless remote, and was simply thrilled (my last camera, annoyingly, didn't have a remote).
Once at home, I pulled the RAW photos off the camera and started trying to figure out how to work with them. With my previous cameras, I'd been shooting JPEGs and using a combination of Picasa, Microsoft Pro Photo Tools, Autopano Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, and Photomatix. However, if I want to continue shooting in RAW (Pentax PEF) format, I need to adjust my workflow a bit. While Picasa can read the raw files, it simply doesn't have the processing tools to create a decent final JPEG product for the web, printing, etc. Currently, I'm still struggling with the workflow, mainly with issues related to editing the metadata and problems with metadata and geotags being read correctly by some of the software packages. As I write this, the metadata in Gallery are pretty messed up, but I haven't determined if there's something wrong with the files, the Picasa export, or Gallery's import of the images. Picasa doesn't seem to be picking up metadata and geotags correctly where the image files have the full blown camera metadata. I may have to drop Picasa and use an alternative upload tool for Gallery.
@schussman recommended Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded the 30-day trial and used it to process most of the photos from this hike. I really liked Lightroom's processing tools, which make it pretty easy to apply the same processing settings to multiple photos, and therefore, allow me to process a group of images quickly and get them out to the web. It keeps a really good history of all the processing steps for image, and the RAW image itself isn't changed, so I can go back as many times as I want to tweak the processing settings. Lightroom has a nice directory browser (which will also show the contents of subdirectories), and the ability to create catalogs and collections (I didn't play with that). There's also a full metadata editor, a few gallery building options, a fairly powerful batch exporter, and I think there's ways to manage the workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop (I haven't played with that yet either). I don't know if I want to pay the $300 price tag for Lightroom, but I'll keep using it until the trial's up... perhaps I'll fall in love, and won't mind shelling out the cash. The camera came with similar software from Pentax, which I also intend to try out.
Taken on a bridge looking over the freeway to the entrance of Brisbane, Australia. I shot this one during the morning blue hour at about 5:45am and you'd be surprised at how many cars are on the road at this time as the freeway is constantly flowing.
HDR Software used- Photomatix 5 Get 15% off Photomatix with the code LukeZemePhotography
Other Software Used: OnOne Photosuite 9
The complete write up on this image is here at www.lukezeme.com
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The entrance to the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine tour at the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train, located in Ashland, Pennsylvania.
If you would like to read more about this photo, please visit my blog post:
brianmoranhdr.blogspot.com/2012/11/pioneer-tunnel-coal-mi...
The entrance to Jurassic Park, at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida.
If you would like to read more about this photo, please visit my blog post:
brianmoranhdr.blogspot.com/2011/07/welcome-to-jurassic-pa...
~
In the midst of all that is going on in the world, I zigzag a path between wanting to stay fully informed and yet wanting to step back to a more peaceful time and place. It’s as though the news of the day -- whatever it is today -- overwhelms the senses. People are unemployed, the economy is tanking, China might acquire the U.S., we’re living in a climate of fear, Trump’s hair moved, governments are falling, Obama greases Osama, Peak Oil has come and gone although we have no shortage if we just scrape it off our shores… The list is endless.
I think it’s a natural, human inclination to retreat from this type of onslaught. The problem is that although we would seek a serene center in our lives, we have a strong desire to know what will happen in the future and yet we pattern our time based on premises from the past. There’s a tendency to either gather information so that we (think we) know what will happen, or to run back to what is known and comfortable, even if it wasn’t perfect.
Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed by ‘current events’, I like to go back through my library of images to find something more calm and serene. (See image above.) One can feel righteous about it when seeking a balance in life. In doing so today, though, it struck me: Even that retreat is an avoidance of what is happening right now.
“There is never nothing going on. There are no ordinary moments.” -- Dan Millman
Every moment of experience is all that we really are. Sometimes the experience is placid, at other times chaotic. Either way, it’s our experience, and surely that should not be avoided. While we might cringe at the thought of some possible future event, or reminisce fondly about the perfect campsite on a remote lake, doing so pulls us away from whatever is happening now, and it is only our resistance to what is happening that causes discomfort.
Millman also said, “The world's a puzzle; no need to make sense of it.”
The key is to stay awake to what is happening, to watch, and to experience it fully. Any resistance to that awareness -- any drifting to the future or to the past -- creates our suffering.
Today, I needed a reminder of that, so I wrote this. Thank you for reading it.
Calcite Springs Overlook, Roosevelt area, between Tower-Roosevelt Junction and Canyon Junction, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA.
The butte seen in the top left corner of the frame is called Bumpus Butte.
From the National Park Service's Web site:
"Calcite Springs: This grouping of thermal springs along the Yellowstone River signals the downstream end of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The geothermally altered rhyolite inspired the artist Moran; his paintings of this scene were among those presented to Congress in 1872, leading to the establishment of the park. The steep, columnar basalt cliffs on the opposite side of the river from the overlook are remnants of an ancient lava flow, providing a window into the past volcanic forces that shaped much of the Yellowstone landscape. The gorge and cliffs provide habitat for numerous wildlife species including bighorn sheep, red-tailed hawks, and osprey."
Link: www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/ntower.htm
Post-processing notes: blended two exposures (one exposed for the sky, and the other exposed for the canyon and trees) using HDRSoft's Photomatix Pro. Applied various digital enhancement filters, ending with a digital application of Kodak Ektachrome 100VS film.
An attempt at an HDR version of my most popular Flickr item.
I think the non-HDR version works much better, but if nothing else this illustrates a couple of weaknesses of HDR.
Firstly, since HDR requires multiple exposures it works poorly for moving subjects. Note the ugly ghosting artifacts around the traffic. A more patient person might have cleaned that up in Photoshop.
Secondly, HDR tends to exaggerate noise in the image, as can clearly be seen here in the sky.
Generated using Photomatix Pro.
Taken from Red Rock Loop Road in Sedona, AZ.
9 exposure bracket, HDR done in Photomatix Pro 3.
Sun breaking through the clouds as it sets, illuminating a tree.
Also featured on WMUR's Life in NH: Fall Edition on 11-8-10
Please respect me and the copyright on my images. Do not use them in any way without my express written consent.
A photo taken from near Las Caranarias Restaurant on the San Antonio Riverwalk in December 2011.
If you would like to learn more about this photo, please visit my blog post:
brianmoranhdr.blogspot.com/2013/12/riverwalk-christmas-lo...
workflow 5 RAW Bilder 1/1600(hab ich zum schluß noch wegen dem kontrastumfang benötigt), 1/400, 1/100, 1/25, 1/6 f=13, ISO leider 400, da ich vergessen habe auf 100 zurückzustellen, 14mm brennweite
grts
olympus
The Story
As part of a three week Road Trip to the USA last summer our journey took us to California, Arizona and Nevada.
After a visit to the Grand Canyon the next stop on 10 August, was Las Vegas, having never been there before we weren't really sure what to expect, but nothing could have prepared us for what was to follow.
From the sadness of people trying to sell the services of "Girls" on every corner, to the amazing magic fountains of the Bellagio it was a photographers dream.
This photo was taken outside the Paris hotel complete with half size Eiffel Tower and Arc De Triumph.
The Shot
5 exposure shot (-2,-1,0,+1,+2) from using my D200 and a Nikon 12-24mm lens on a tripod
Opened in Photomatix with detail enhancer set to default.
Then modified using Topaz Adjust , to increase colour and sharpness.
Saturation then boosted and areas of noise reduced.
The sky was darkened and the noise reduced with Noiseware .
Sensor dust spots and blemishes removed and frame and title and stars added.
The Music
Elvis Presley - Viva Las Vegas
The Book
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Comments, advice, tips and critique always welcome.
Please feel free also to add notes and tags you feel appropriate
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