Friday 23 June 2017

Photo workflow exercise Lightroom vs Canon DPP4

I took a bracketed image and processed them in two different ways to see if it made an appreciable difference.

Workflow 1
Lightroom CC for HDR, lens correction, perspective correction and BW processing.


Workflow 2
Canon DPP4 for HDR, lens correction then Photoshop CC for perspective correction sing NIK plugins for BW processing



Workflow-wise, keeping everything in Lr CC is easy and the file is exported to your chosen destination.
With DPP4 the image can be sent to Ps CC and processed there, however it is not a "round trip" the image when saved within Ps gets saved way down in the folder structure on the Mac HD. I then had to find this and copy it to where I wanted it to be stored.

Concerning IQ, to my eyes, and this was when I was working on the CR2 files on a 27" Thunderbolt monitor, the HDR in Lr did a better job in masking the ghost images from the trees being blown by the wind whilst taking the 3 bracketed images, but DPP4 performed marginally better on the brickwork of the building. The sky was easier to process, in that greater adjustment was possible,  in NIK Silver EFX Pro than using the grad filter in Lr. Adjusting perspective in Lr required a Crop to afterwards, while in Ps it was all taken care of automatically. The two methods have produced a different result, which is interesting.

Wednesday 21 June 2017

Saltaire Inspired 2017 Gary Thomas

One of the more interesting exhibitors at Saltaire Inspired 2017 was Gary Thomas, who was in the Exhibitors hall.

Gary threw pots at regular intervals and always attracted a good audience.

I took some images while I was watching. Its always good to see skilled artists at work.

My daughter was so taken by Gary's work she bough two pieces.

If you would like to see more of Gary's work take a look here.









Sunday 18 June 2017

Saltaire Inspired 2017 - The Final images

After much experimenting in Lr Cc and Ps Cc I finally decided on the treatment I would give this year's Saltaire Inspired exhibitors images.

In the end I didn't use Ps to process any of the images, it was all done in Lr. I'm finding that increasingly Ps is getting used less and less for post processing as I can do everything I want in Lr CC.

If I need to add text or logos to images then Ps is the only option, and also if i decide the image requires a lot of use of the content aware re-touching, iI find its quicker in Ps.

Here is a selection from the final images, all taken on Canon 5D2 with either a Canon 16-35mm f2.8 L II, 24-70 f2.8 L or 70-200mm f2.8 IS L.





















Saturday 3 June 2017

Lippy Ladies Project - Hatfield Main Colliery Doncaster



After a hiatus during the winter the Lippy Ladies project has started up again.

I drove over to Hatfield Main Colliery near Doncaster to meet up with Helen.

Helen is originally from a Yorkshire mining village and learned to ride motorcycles on the slag heaps when she was a teenager.

After speaking to security we were allowed onto the site but not permitted to go any closer due the work in progress back filling the 1 mile deep access shaft.

Hatfield colliery opened in 1916 and shut down in June of 2015, unable to sell its coal due to increases in the UK carbon tax. In November 2015 the two headstocks were Grade II listed.

I shot on m Canon 5D2 bodies with the Canon 24-70mm f2.8 USM L, Canon 16-35mm f2.8 USM L II and Canon 70-200 f2.8 USM L IS lenses.


Images processed in Lr CC







Patrick Smith studio Canon G10 Powershot

Its Yorkshire Open Studios this week and we were round at our old friend Patrick Smiths studio for a catch up and a look at some of his work, old and new.

Patrick has a nice studio/workshop in a separate building in his garden and like I do with all artists I took some photos of it.

The only camera I had with me was my trusty Canon G10 Powershot.

I've given the images a little tweak in Lr CC