More Experiments With "Lightroom 4"

More or less all of the pictures herein are not mine, but my Dad's, and most taken on his old Minolta camera as far as I can see.

As shot:

 LR4 version:

Now, to be frank, some of the changes I've made while trying to learn my way around LR4 are not exactly dramatic, but that wasn't the point. They're meant to be "improvements", at least for the most part, and sometimes the way a picture comes "vanilla" out of the camera is just exactly as you might have wanted it.

 Very old pre-digital shot, scanned presumably...

 As shot:

LR4:

 (Yes, that's me whipping in.....)

As shot:

 LR4:

 LR4 2nd attempt:

As shot:

LR4 version:

 Mr Luxton looking dapper (As shot):

 LR4:

My Dad (As shot):

 LR4 version 1:

 version 2:

 3:

  As shot:

 LR4 version:

 Lawn Meet at Knowle Top Farm (As shot):

 LR4 version:

 A bit more subtle perhaps, but this was the first post-ban meet at The Huntsman when the two beagle packs & foxhounds got together to stick two fingers up at Blair....

As shot:

 LR4 version:

Well, as you can see, I'm no expert, but a keen tryer nevertheless.

Of course it all comes down to personal preference at the end of the day, and if you're looking for really dramatic images to hammer home a point or to use in some marketing thing or other then you might over-cook any aspect of the process just for effect, but I'm having fun trying to get to grips with it, which I could never say about Photoshop which is still an utter mystery to me......

Moby Moment. "The Great Escape"

I was going to write a long piece on copyright, on the music industry and the artists' side of the equation, all of which have been on my mind lately for one reason or another, but until I have a tad more inspiration will have to shelve it for now.

I do not like "stealing" music, via torrents, or unregistered Russian websites, or anything, and do not sell anything on if I find myself compromised by doing so, ever, but if my CDs/DVDs are unplayable, or whatever, or my old LPs and cassettes are just too darned difficult to copy (VERY laboriously) on to my PC and hence music player for personal digestion, I think to myself "I already own this, albeit in a different format, so why not?" Then I read an odd licensing thing that you sometimes see when downloading something, and think that I'm fine with that....I know the artist(s) has/have already been part of the process, and hence (hopefully) got paid, so why not?

Enough, I'm not going to write that essay now.




Ironic that YT or Google deleted my previous video, which I've only just noticed when reading back though....... So have tried again.... (Edited 21st July 2018)

Some of the thoughts were sparked off by YouTube deleting a couple of my videos that featured "copyright" music that someone called "Johnny M" had objected to. Hey Johnny, was anyone fooled into thinking I worked with The Eurthymics or Lou Reed because I'd used them as a soundtrack to walking a pack of beagles through some woods?? No? I didn't think so. Was anyone deprived of any money because I used the tracks? No? I didn't think so.

Was anyone for the remotest second lead to believe that any of the artists I'd picked (because the tracks seemed to fit, and because I LIKED them) endorsed any aspect of the videos I'd posted? No, I really don't think so.

Did I claim anything other than "Fair use" of the tracks at any point? NO.

When artists make zillions of shekels out of a track, and it's been played millions of times "in public" then some of the reasoning for Johnny M to complain about my homemade "Entertainment" videos seems a little bit picky to me. Sorry, but I'm a bit cross.

Hidden messages?

Keep them.

YouTube would die if every single "Copyright" video was deleted, and that's a simple inarguable fact.

Oh, and I was going to go off on one about "The Emperor's New Clothes" and the Daft Punk album, but then that got me thinking about previous "Emperor's New Clothes" albums, like everything by Moby and, in a circular way that made me go look for the one track that always hit me the most. This is a live version of it, but the studio version is sublime.


Got to get a grip.

Reader(s)

After the death of Google Reader, I tried Newsvibes, Old Reader, Feedly and two or three others. All of which had their positives and snags too...I settled on Old Reader as it was the closest to what I was familiar with and seemed to have much of the same functionality...

Then, disaster....they got so swamped by traffic their servers melted and it looked like it was all over.

Thank goodness, that whatever happened, when it looked as if they were reverting to a private network for "friends" only, and I gave up even trying any more alternatives, something must have happened to make them change their minds...

PHEW.

Only 2630 blooming posts to catch up with now............ Time killer.

Dire

After all therse years, I can't help but hear Paul Sutherland's view on Dire Straits. They were associated with the "M&S types".

Still, can't take anything away from much that they've done. My own personal hate is their most successful "Money For Nothing" which to this day I loath with a passion. While it admittedly was technically superb and all that, it was like they'd suddenly turned into a parody version of themselves. This is a reminder of their better tracks, as they had many many....

Dry Stone Walling & Cliff

More experiments with LR4 I'm afraid....

I found my long-lost Polarising filter in a waistcoat pocket, so maybe, just maybe, that might have helped with some of the skies. To be honest, I had used it many times in the past and done "comparison" shots which left me wondering why I'd bothered buying it in the first place. Still, maybe it's more of a learning curve than I had hoped for....

 None of these are "layered", just tweaked a bit until the impression suits me. I am a million miles behind on PS7, and have a stack of tutorial videos to try to get around to playing with, but you can see how many other photographers have got the hang of HDR when you're aware of it. I am just trying here....

 Oh, and in case any of you have been to Yorkshire and seen our walls, this is how we grow them....

 Of course, in "real" walls we try to make the courses a bit straighter, but isn't Nature a fabulous creature?

All you Holme Valley photographers...I've got my eye on you......

Love Forestation

Baby Dragon

 

Banks of the Styx

 

1996

 

Stream Of BS Maybe.....

More LR4 (Sorry!)

I have had too much today, and I don't mean anything by that, just "too much". So won't say which is which.

....alright, the really dark one is the "straight off the camera" one, but otherwise they're all DPP..apart from one.

 It's not like I'm an expert or anything, seeing as how I'm not, and am going to try to master the selective adjustment thing, but need a PhD do actually manage that....... It's fun trying though.

Hopefully practice might make it easier.....

Lightroom

I have about thirty "posts" in my head to try to get out, but then time and time again, I run into a brick wall, and think "Who on earth wants to read this??"

Is a Blog like a living CV? I guess so.

I've said before that someone I know once said that they were places for people to tell the world how good they were, though perhaps that's paraphrasing. But still, a Blog is a potentially very self-indulgent place I have to admit that.

I have "acquired" Adobe Lightroom 4 (64 Bit) and am frustrated as heck trying to navigate my way around it's inner workings. Canon's own DPP is so straight forward, basic in some ways I know, and does exactly what you want for the majority of the time, but LR is like a sophisticated overseas cousin who knows exactly where it's at, and has a lot more whistles and bells to baffle a rank amateur, but keen to learn type like me.

Anyway, while I do that here are three versions of the same picture of Gwyn:

  When I get chance I'll do something properly worthwhile like posting comparison shots......ones that have been thought through rather than B&W vs colour... Doh!

Still, I'm proud of all three. The fact of the matter in this instance, isn't which are LR and which DPP, seeing as how they're all "tinkered with" rather than "straight out of the camera", but rather a matter of personal taste.

There is a "local" as in Huddersfield, based photographer who runs a Blog that I followed (until Google Reader died, and then "Old Reader" did too" and I can't get "Newsvibe" to do what I want...) who posts some superb pictures, but al are in his particualr style, and often extremely heavy on the contrast and so on. That's not a criticism, he runs classes on the subject after all, and I push a mower, so know nothing obviously, just an observation.

DPP or LR? There are far better qualified people out there to comment on the subject, so I'll relax a bit, until I learn how to get it to do what I want, then beware....

What is the end result/purpose of your pictures? Professional stylistic things, or just friends & family? Or some kind of mix of the two?

I take pictures for fun, but strive, in and amongst, to make them better and better. Here's hoping that LR4 can help me with that, if I find something that works for me in the first place that is....

 Lightroom 4

Digital Photo Professional

Not a lot in it I guess, but I know which I prefer.

I managed a whole post, again, without bragging or hidden messages, or any kind of pointed innuendo, wow, must be getting better at this...