I've been taking a lot of photos lately, but have been lax in getting them up onto the web. I bought a software program called Adobe Lightroom 2. It is supposed to improve my workflow and pics, but so far it seems as though it slowed it down. It really hasn't, but my volume of pictures has increased along with learning how best to use the software. I really like the program. I can move the photos from folder to folder and in addition I can put certain ones into collections for easier posting. It also is keyword friendly, so I'm keywording my pics like crazy. Then, when I go to upload to Flickr, the uploader reads the keywords and I don't have to enter them upon upload. It does make things easier. I can also import my photos from RAW to DNG and any edits I make within Lightroom are 100% reversible even if the file is exported. It only is set when I export as a JPG ready to upload.
So anyway, most of what I've been up to is summer stuff like hiking, housesitting, birdwatching, birdcounting, vacationing, etc., all of it conducive to photo-taking. Sorry I neglected to share with you all. I even downloaded a blogger app to the iPhone, but never got around to actually posting anything with that either.
Here's a hummingbird I took a little over a month ago. The hummingbirds are still around of course, but the flowers reflected in the window are long gone. They turned brown a couple weeks ago and this past week my brother roto-tilled them to earn some money and prepare for a trench to add an irrigation system on the side yard.
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12 comments:
That's a really nice photo with reflection. The soft margins of he yellow flowers- LOVE it.
I know what you mean about summer being busy. I might have to look into your new Adobe Lightroom 2. I am still frustraed with navigating around Photoshop Elements. So much so that I find myself falling back on Picasa.
Life takes over some times, doesn't it?
Thanks Lynne!
Lightroom costs $200, but it streamlines my photo-editing process from the camera to the web. It also has functions I have yet to use like print & slideshow. It will do most editing features you likely do like crop & straighten, dust removal, color & contrast correction, and in addition it fine-tunes any saturation adding or individual hue changing you might want to try. I got a little carried away with that for several photos, so if I post some garish ones, you know I've gotten carried away with "clarity" and "vibrance".
The beauty of it is no more transferring from the camera to the harddrive via Windows. Then converting the RAW to JPG via Canon's DPP. Then opening the original JPGs in Adobe Bridge to rename them. Then copying all the originals to an edits folder (still in Bridge). Then editing the JPGs in Photoshop CS2. So finally it's ready to upload to either/both blog & Flickr.
Now, just Lightroom for all of that + Photoshop at the end to add my watermark.
Tell me about it Wren! It's so easy to move onto things and forget about all the other stuff you also love.
Nice photo, it seems we are all too busy to blog like we had been. Maybe in the colder months we will all be posting summer photos to help keep us warm.
I certainly like Leedra's comment about posting during the colder months - especially when we don't have the desire to go out and take photos, much less when the hours of the day are so much shorter.
Congrats on navigating the Lightroom learning curve, and having beautiful hummers to practice on.
As for less blogging: Summer is supposed to be spent on summery things, or so they tell me.
That's really a beautiful photo. I love hummers. You caught the color so perfectly when the light hits them just right.
Thanks Leedra... and I agree. We'll all reconnect in the fall and winter.
Yep Mom, us nature folks are so tuned to the seasons we just want to be out in the good weather and just talk about it in the bad.
Thanks J.G. :) You have baseball and books... can't get too much more summery than that!
Thanks Linda. Would you believe it was simply a snapshot and my focus had been to test out a particular camera and lens for a friend on Twitter? I was shooting the flowers when this little hummer came by and didn't mind me being there. I quickly turned and snapped and voila!
I guess we're all having a busy summer Heidi. Glad you found some time for a post and to share that really great hummingbird photo!
Thanks Ruthie! I just read your blog today and see you might be doing less blogging too. However I guess it's still something if you post your cap a day project :) Better than me!
Welcome to Lightroom! Certainly there's a learning curve. I've been using it for a couple of years, and it's definitely a LOT faster than Photoshop, which I used previously. On the other hand, lately I have been using the Nik plugins, which are absolutely superb, but really slow down my workflow, so I have to pick & choose which photos are worthy to send to 'em. Glad you've joined the ranks of the perpetually behind-with-photos (my backlog is over 2000 at the moment, c'est la vie!)
LOL! Thanks Adam :D
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