Today has been all about Lightroom 5. I have been obsessing about it non-stop and sneaking away to look at online videos and tutorials at every opportunity. It is a steep learning curve for sure, but I think that the climb will be worth the effort. With so many new options to play with, the risk is going overboard and ending up with a very unnatural looking picture. I have gone to that place and tried to pull myself back from it.
I have a couple of comparison shots. I wasn't satisfied with the Bear shot I took yesterday. I felt that it had more to offer, so I played around with it in Lightroom. One of the things that excites me most about Lightroom is the noise reduction function. Noise has been ruining all of my photos lately. I also like the fact that you can isolate areas to brighen/darken.
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| Picmonkey |
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| Lightroom |
I played it reasonably safe with Bear, but then I went a bit more daring with this Roo shot. The horrible tiles (working on a refurb!) and the redness of Roo made this shot trash worthy. So I played around with the clone tool to get rid of the grouting all together. I also played around with few other things to get rid of the redness. I'm not saying that it is the best shot in the world, but I think that it is an improvement.
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| Picmonkey |
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| Lightroom |
With all of that editing going on, I haven't managed to take any particularly good pictures. I also felt rather burnt out with the editing and couldn't figure out if I was making things better or worse. It was tempting to go back to my old editing software, but I stuck with it.
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| f/2; 1/60; ISO 800 |
This shot of Rexy drove me batty! I kept playing around with White Balance, but the colours still looked off to me. This is the best I could achieve. Perhaps it is the background that throws me. I can't figure out how much of the noise reduction to use as too much gives an unnaturally smooth image - Think cover of Vogue.
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| f/2; 1/125; ISO 800 |
I like this shot for personal reasons. We are working towards a kitchen extension which will totally transform this space for the better. The kitchen is such an important area for us and I know that we will want to remember it as it was in years to come. I am also struck by how big and independent my boys are becoming. They need me less and less to help them with basic tasks like getting a drink. I am now able to step back an watch as they navigate the world on their own. Thankfully, they are still only a few metres away and they miss me if I am not there.
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| f/3.5; 1/160; ISO 3200 |
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