Lightroom

October 9, 2013

Photography as art

Experimenting with double exposure portraits.

Tagged with art, artist, Brooke Shaden, career, hobby, inspiration, Lightroom, photography, Von Wong

Lately, I’ve been pondering my photography and what I want out of photography as art. This is prompted mostly by the ever-expanding Lightroom catalog (it’s just eating away all of my hard drive space). I find myself wasting precious time constantly going back through them, pruning out photos I don’t think are worthy of editing. The more I run into this issue, the more I realize I’m keeping all these photos and I don’t really know why. They’re not particularly outstanding. They have some merit, obviously, or I wouldn’t be keeping them, but they’re not great. So obviously that begs the question (many questions, really): why do I have all these pictures? Why am I keeping them? And why am I taking them in the first place?Read More

April 17, 2013

Lightroom tethering for the D600! (finally… and sorta)

Posted in DIY, Musings, Product Reviews

Tagged with 4.4, adobe, auto import, beta, D600, DNG, easy, free, Image Capture, import, Lightroom, LR, LR5, Mac, native, NEF, Nikon, OSX, RAW, tether, tethered shooting, tethering, watched folder, workaround

Okay, so there’s still no native tethering in Lightroom for the Nikon D600 as of version 4.4, but I’m frankly sick of waiting. I’m guessing they either forgot or just don’t care (with a beta release of LR5 just hitting the interweb, it’s easy to understand the lack of focus).

After doing some angry googling, I stumbled across this thread in the Adobe Community forums and found a great suggestion by Butch_M (who also suggests we will never see native tethering in LR4 since it’s allegedly a standard feature in LR5). Thanks mate!Read More

April 6, 2013

Focus stacking tutorial

Posted in DIY, Musings

Tagged with 105mm, adobe, auto-align, auto-blend, D600, depth-of-field, diamond, DOF, engagement, extension tubes, focus stacking, garnet, geometric distortion, green, Lester A. Dine, Lightroom, macro, micro, Nikon, photoshop, platinum, Plexiglas, ring, shallow, tsavorite, tutorial, wedding

I recently picked up a true 1:1 macro lens, the Lester A. Dine 105mm 2.8, and have been experimenting with it endlessly. One thing I discovered about macro photography is that the depth of field is exceptionally shallow, even at the largest (smallest) aperture. This is exacerbated if you’re using extension tubes to get larger than 1:1 reproduction.Read More

March 8, 2013

Behind the scenes – Mirror in the bathroom

Shots used to compile my mirror full of faces

Posted in Musings

Tagged with bathroom, behind the scenes, bts, clones, D600, dupes, faces, hdr, horror, IT, Lightroom, masking, men, mirror, nightmare, Nikon, Photomatix, photoshop, reflection, reflections, scary, Stephen King, Trajan

I was very surprised at the amount of attention and praise my last work, the mirror in the bathroom, received. For something so strange and experimental, I was flabbergasted by how many people seemed to like it.

That being said, a few people were wanting to know how I put it all together. While I’m wishing that I had taken more photos of the setup itself, this will have to do!Read More

March 7, 2013

The mirror in the bathroom

Posted in Musings

Tagged with bathroom, clones, D600, dupes, faces, hdr, horror, IT, Lightroom, men, mirror, nightmare, Nikon, photoshop, reflection, reflections, scary, Stephen King, Trajan

Welcome to my nightmare. The mirror in the bathroom. But is it only that?

You might find yourself asking, do your nightmares always involve you wearing your wife’s pajamas? Typically no. But I have had recurring nightmares about strange clones and odd happenings since I was a child (which, I’m glad to say, happen with much less frequency now that I’m older). I would often dream that there were weird, invasion-of-the-bodysnatcher duplicates of my family following me around the house with lights for eyes (probably lifted from the “deadlights” description in Stephen King’s It). They were mainly chase dreams, never really reaching any kind of culmination (and thank god for that!), but they stuck with me.Read More

February 18, 2013

Self-portrait Monday

Posted in Musings

Tagged with 105mm, 2.8, b&w, black and white, Clay Enos, D600, depth-of-field, dramatic, flash, garage, lighting, Lightroom, manual focus, Nikon, portrait, self portrait, shallow, strobe, studio, tethered capture, TriggerTrap, Watchmen

That’s right. Time to start a new trend. Self-portrait Monday or SPM for short. We’ll see how long this actually lasts (me being notorious for not sticking with

What was I saying? Right, so Reese’s Peanut Butter cups are hands-down the best candy ever.Read More

September 14, 2012

Raiders of the Lost… Munitions Box?

Posted in Musings

Tagged with box, D90, experiementation, flash, fun, hat, Indiana Jones, leather, Lightroom, munitions, Nikon, portrait, Raiders, reflector, SB600, SB800, self portrait, tethered, USB

So I’ve got this box. I love this box. Bought it at an antique store in… I don’t remember, but it turns out that it’s an old munitions box from who-knows-when.

For as long as I’ve owned it, sadly I’ve had no idea what to do with it. It’s not really functional in regards to its original use (I don’t have many munitions), and it’s too heavy to use as a wallet. What to do???Read More

July 10, 2011

Porch fun!

Posted in Musings

Tagged with 18-200, Before & After, CTO, D90, editing, edits, filter, flash, flashes, gel, Honl, HonlPhoto, Hot Shoe Diaries, Joe McNally, Lightroom, lubbock, Lumiquest, Magic Arm, Manfrotto, porch, portrait, portraits, Promax, Rembrandt, speedlight, speedlights, umbrella, VR, VRII

So I finally got around to buying Joe McNally’s book The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes and have been reading it religiously (that is to say, not often enough). Joe’s got a lot of experience, a great sense of humor, and tons of practical tips (if you’re lucky enough to be a Nikon user, that is). If you own a Nikon DSLR and a speedlight, buy his book today.Read More

February 8, 2011

Review of the Nikon D3100

Posted in Musings, Product Reviews

Tagged with 10 megapixels, 14 megapixels, B&H, D3100, D90, digital, gear, Lightroom, Nikon, photography, RAW, review

Nikon's new D3100. Get yours today! — Nikon's new D3100

Here’s my review of the new Nikon D3100 on B&H’s website:

Great value for a fraction of the D7000

By Magellan from Houston, TX on 2/6/2011

Ease of Operation: 8
Pros: Easy To Use, Fast / Accurate Auto-Focus, Fast Shutter Speed, Good Image Quality, Good Image Stabilization, High ISO Performance, Quiet
Cons: Low-res LCD
Best Uses: Family Photos, Indoors/Low Light, Weddings/Events
Describe Yourself: Semi-pro Photographer
Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

Tag

Lightroom

Photography as art

Lightroom tethering for the D600! (finally… and sorta)

Focus stacking tutorial

Behind the scenes – Mirror in the bathroom

The mirror in the bathroom

Self-portrait Monday

Raiders of the Lost… Munitions Box?

Porch fun!

Review of the Nikon D3100

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