Wednesday 23 June 2010

Wednesday june 23 : more pyrotechnics




My new secretary started work this morning and will be creating my blog entries from now on!

Perhaps we should be looking round Worksop this evening to get some pictures for the competition?

Well actually we walked up what was the old Kiiveton pit tip. From the top we saw this in the far distance:
Which I reckon is this tower next to the A630 going out of Rotherham towards the M1 J35

Anyway, continuing our weekly theme of (no smoke without) fire:

Not as spectacular as last week's but a fire nontheless.

And to finish off, a post-solstice sunset








Tuesday 15 June 2010

Wednesday 16th June



Ray said he and Stuart were looking at a row of bodies - could it have been these?

OK, so having grabbed your attention, what's on for tomorrow night? Weather forecast is sunny for Worksop, sunny periods for Sheffield and Doncaster.


And now a word from our sponsor ....


As it turned out someone provided the entertainment by setting fire to a local chemical storage facility. The Bill wouldn't let us get too close but even from a distance it was quite spectacular.





Sunday 13 June 2010

Coningsby Outing

Well the weather held out for us and apart from a slight breeze which kept blowing the stove out, the day remained warm. There was a great turn out and a good time was had by all.

Here are a few of my efforts from the day, not many of them turned out very well, I had quite a few where the image just wasn't sharp, having said that it was my first day out with the new camera and I expect I will need to get used to it as it is so different from my 20D.

On with the show...

The Mighty Hunter, an amazing aircraft, given its age, the rate of climb on this was phenomenal


The Sentinel


The Typhoon


The Dakota


The Blades




Thursday 10 June 2010

Flaming June (Jack Duckworth definition of flaming)


Here we are in flaming June as the sun beats down. Can anyone advise me how to selectively turn the leaves orange in this pic to complete the illusion of mists and mellow fruitfulness?

The weather forecast is for it to brighten up towards the end of the week. I'm not holding my breath, just praying it will be nice on Saturday for Coningsby

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Lightroom 3 Released

Software UPDATE

Lightroom 3

Well if you don’t know already, Abode finally released their long awaited upgrade to Lightroom with Version 3 going live yesterday.  The good news for UK residents is that it’s probably a tad cheaper than most of us were expecting, this time costing £76.88 (£63.54 ex VAT) to upgrade direct from the Adobe web site. The full version is priced at £232.65 (£198.00 ex VAT), but if you qualify for the Student/Teacher edition you can obtain the full version for a mere £64.39. Mind these prices look set to rise as a VAT hike looks imminent for the budget due on the 22nd June so if you’re planning to upgrade or buy do it before then.  Rather surprisingly the beta 2 version will still work till the 30th June. You can download a trial version, upgrade or buy from here.

The (slightly) disappointing news is that there are no big surprises, so pretty much what was available in the Beta 2 release is what you get, albeit in it it’s final polished state. The new features added since version 2 are:

  • Accelerated with a new processing engine
  • Lens Correction
  • Support for DSLR video files
  • Flexible publishing to sites like Flickr
  • Image Watermarking
  • Exportable slideshow with music (to MP4 video files)
  • Easier Importing
  • Tethered Shooting
  • Perspective Control
  • Film Grain Simulation
  • Flexible Print Packaging

There are some minor changes since the Beta 2 version however, and these are detailed by Tom Hogarty on his Lightroom Journal Blog.

As usual there are several sites already listing the new features in greater detail. Check out the Lightroom Queen Victoria Brampton’s blog for a full listing of all the new features and changes and there’s an excellent summary by Ian Lyons at the Computer-Darkroom. Videos of several of the new features are provided at the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Learning Center, courtesy of Matt Kloskowski (of Lightroom Killer Tips) and Scott Kelby of NAPP. There’s also an introduction to what’s new by Julieanne Kost on Adobe TV here. Also look out for the forthcoming Lightroom 3 Video Tutorial by Jeff Schewe and Michael Reichmann which will be soon available from the Luminous Landscape site.  I purchased and downloaded their tutorial on  Lightroom 2 when that was released which was good value and the easiest way to learn all the new features. I can thoroughly recommend any of their videos.

 

Upgrading

I upgraded my Lightroom last night which installed easily and with the new version 3 seeming more responsive than the Beta 2 version. When installing, Version 3 will automatically ask if you want to upgrade your existing catalogue to version 3, which went ahead quite seamlessly but takes a while to complete depending on the size of your catalogue. I left my running overnight. Lightroom 3 will not however, change your existing picture modifications to the use latest LR3 de-mosaic RAW processing engine (now called Process 2010, with the prior version now Process 2003). In the Develop module you may see a little exclamation icon in the lower left of your picture in Loupe mode.

LRprocess

This means that picture is still using the old 2003 Process engine. To upgrade simply click the icon and you are given the choice to upgrade just that photo, all selected photographs or all in the Filmstrip to the new 2010 Process. This can also be achieved through the Settings | Process menu in Develop mode. View the vide by Julieanne Kost here for a demonstration of how this is done.

 

Initial Thoughts

The lens correction and noise removal features of Lightroom 3 alone, certainly make this upgrade a thoroughly worthwhile purchase for me and probably many other photographers. Both perform very well in comparison to the stand-alone packages I use (PT-lens & Noise Ninja Pro). The processing engine (Process 2010) will cause some of your pictures to look quite different so some tweaking may be needed in places, but from what I’ve seen in the Beta 2 version, the end result is much improved. I’ll reserve comment on the accelerated processing until I’ve had more time .

It’s clear that with Lightroom 3.0, Adobe have a mature, very capable and competent product and I would have no hesitation in recommending this upgrade.

 

Lightroom 3 Resources

Tuesday 1 June 2010

What's this about?














Here's an idea for a photo comp : who can take the best picture not looking through the viewfinder and not even looking at the live-view screen! (every entry would have to be accompanied by a second shot - see above - to prove the photographer hasn't cheated!)

We're all in with an equal chance of winning this one!