About Me

My photo
Spofford, New Hampshire, United States
Jeff Newcomer had been a physician practicing in New Hampshire and Vermont for over 30 years. Over that time, as a member of the Conservation Commission in his home of Chesterfield New Hampshire, he has used his photography to promote the protection and appreciation of the town's wild lands. In recent years he has been transitioning his focus from medicine to photography, writing and teaching. Jeff enjoys photographing throughout New England, but has concentrated on the Monadnock Region and southern Vermont and has had a long term artistic relationship with Mount Monadnock. He is a featured artist in a number of local galleries and his work is often seen in regional print, web publications and in business installations throughout the country. For years Jeff has published a calendar celebrating the beauty of The New England country-side in all seasons. All of the proceeds from his New England Reflections Calendar have gone to support the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program at the Cheshire Medical Center. Jeff has a strong commitment to sharing his excitement about the special beauty of our region and publishes a blog about photography in New England.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

I Get My Dose of Fenway


Xander's Swing


Susan, Grayson and Abby
We always try to get down to Boston in the summer to catch a couple of Red Sox games.  Now that my daughter Abigail has moved to Cambridge, we have the added incentive of spending time with her and her boyfriend Grayson.  Earlier this year we picked up four Sox tickets in a raffle benefiting Keene’s Colonial Theater.  It was a great chance to travel south for brunch with Abby and Grayson in Cambridge before the afternoon game against the
View from Mass. Ave Bridge
Angels. We live a little less than two hours northwest of the city, so it is never a struggle to make it to civilization.  After brunch, we drove to the MIT Campus and parked on a side street.  It was a lovely day for a walk, over the Mass. Ave bridge, to Fenway.  Passing through Kenmore Square and I had a chance to show Abby the windowless, basement Hobbit hole that was my home for the early grind of my medical school experience.




Fenway Green
I have never lost the sense of magic that I experience every time I come to the top of the stairs, and first see the vivid hue of Fenway’s historic turf.  It is like no other green.  We were seated along the first base line, and despite the hot sun, we were in a prime foul ball catching zone.  Sadly, no luck, but I got my mandatory popcorn and settled in.



Photography at Fenway

Fenway doesn’t have a lot of restrictions on bringing fancy cameras into the park; “Cameras and video cameras are permitted but cannot be used to reproduce the game and must not interfere with other fans' enjoyment of the game.”  No problem, I could bring my big DSLR and 100-400mm zoom, but I prefer to keep things light and inconspicuous.  The perfect solution is “Susan’s” Canon SX50 HS.  The same camera that Susan has steadfastly refused to touch!  

Let me explain

I got the SX50HS for Susan to take along on our tour through Alaska in 2014. The camera is light, with a small sensor, but has a 24-1200mm fixed lens! With that focal length range, why would you need other lenses?  Susan and I tend to choose different hikes on our tours.  I generally stay with the photographers, making frequent stops for shots, while Susan moves more quickly with the non-photographers, who are often called the “natural history” groups.  Since we are usually exploring different areas, I assumed Susan would want her own camera to capture the action, especially if she is the lucky one to be charged by the angry grizzly. 

Hungry Grizzly, Pavlov Island Alaska
 "Angry charging Grizzly" is one of those situations for which a 1200mm lens would sound pretty good.  But NO.  She continues to argue that I’m the photographer and she has no need to touch that crazy cameray thing.  Cameray? - My word not hers, but I suspect it will catch on.  I’ve tried to sneak the camera over to her side of the bed when she is sleeping, but all my strategies have failed.  




Peddy's Windup, 1200mm View Uncropped
Ok.  I’ll admit that I don’t mind being saddled with this nicely capable little “carry around” camera, but Susan has just upgraded to the iPhone 7, which means that she is unsuspectingly carrying a pretty decent little camera.  My evil plan has succeeded!  Now if I can only get her to use the DAMN thing!





Sorry for that unfortunately long diversion, but I had to get it off my chest.  The bottom line is that I have a nice little camera to bring to athletic events such as the Red Sox, or to third world countries where a big “fancy” camera could be a dangerous attraction. Obviously, the 1200mm focal length on the SX50 HS allows me to get closer to the action, but the camera also has a full range of controls, and although the small sensor can show problems with noise at high ISOs, it does result in a deep depth of field in macro images.  And, perhaps most importantly, the camera shoots in RAW!





Children's Day
We got to the game early and had the fun of watching Children’s Day.  The Red Sox players had a chance to frolic on the field with their kids.  It is a healthy reminder that many of the players are only a little more than kids themselves and have their own new families.



 



Brush-Back
The game itself was a bit of a disappointment with the Sox loosing 4:2 to the Angels and, again, no foul balls coming near.  Photographically, I focused on trying to catch some of my hometown heroes in mid-swing.  The SX 50 has only a slight shutter lag, but it was still difficult to time my shots to the right moment in the pitcher’s delivery.  



Pappi Unleashes
A couple of years ago I was lucky to capture the “holy grail” of such shots when I caught Big Pappy in a gigantic swing with the ball visible sailing off the bat.  AND it was a home run – I swear!!   No such luck this time.  Among the pile of failed shoots, I did catch a couple of swings and one with Mookie Betts ducking away from a brush-back pitch.  1200mm is great, but the biggest challenge was to hold the little camera tightly enough to keep the images sharp.





Capturing action shots from far back in the stands can be a challenge.  Obviously, a long lens can be helpful, but anticipating the key moments is difficult. Your arms can get numb continually holding the camera in front of your face waiting for the magic to happen. As much as I would love to capture the critical play, I don’t want to spend the whole game with a camera blocking my view of the live action.  I usually shoot in just a few situations.  Catching the swings is fairly easy.  Of course, being along the right field line I could only catch the right-handlers.  Capturing the quick and unpredictable action in the infield can be difficult, but with a man on first I can watch for a steal or a dive back to first to avoid a pick-off.  If I am on the left field side I can look for action in the home dugout.  A little scratching or spitting is always exciting.  All of this needs to be limited within reason.  There are professional sports photographers right on the sidelines who I can trusted to shoot the key plays. I just try to get a few images to document my attendance at the event and settle back to finish my popcorn.  After all, I’m a landscape photographer and despite years of visiting Fenway I have yet to see a tree in the “park”.

Fenway Pano

 
Like many newer cameras, the SX50 can construct a panorama image from a series of shots, so I had to capture a disorientingly complete view of the park, but my favorite pictures are of the family while they were trying to steal my popcorn.

Despite the score, it was a great day trip and a good chance to play with my little carrying around camera.  My only disappointment was that I failed once again to slip “Susan’s” camera into her pocket book.

 



Jeffrey Newcomer
partridgebrookreflections.com

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Infrared Season



It’s summer!  Great! The days are balmy, which is just a nicer way of saying hot and humid.  The Black Flies have been replaced by voracious Mosquitoes, and, if you want to see the sunrise, you must drag yourself out of bed at 4:30 AM.  It is wonderful to see all the green, but the foliage has largely matured to the same monotonous shade for maximal photosynthesis.  BAH HUMBUG?

Chesterfield Gorge
Placing all the whining aside, I do love summer, especially when I think of the alternative of the up-coming cold stark winter.  After all, this is New England, and we New England photographers revel in the opportunities that each season provide.  In summer, we have the busy farms, the spectacular sunsets and, when conditions cooperate, the dramatic Milky Way.   There is always something to shoot and when I get tired of all that warm foliage, I remember that it is the summer green that makes this the best time of year for Infrared Photography.




Infrared Conversion
The Pru in IR 1978
I have shot infrared since my film days in the 1970’s.  Back then, capturing this invisible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum required special film, and developing materials.  It was a lot of work, and therefore, it was a liberation when I converted my old Canon 20D to Infrared.  It is fortunate that I’m a pack-rat and never threw away or eBayed my old cameras. 

 





For more information about Infrared photography and camera conversion, check out my more detailed article from six years ago.  It is important to note that Lifepixel is still doing the conversions on a wide array of cameras and surprisingly the cost is still only $250.  Not a bad price to turn one of you old doorstops into a window on a whole new world of light.




Seeing with Infrared
Stone Arch Bridge, Keene New Hampshire
What do you see with infrared?  To paraphrase my previous article; “Among the most prominent attributes of Infrared images are inky dark skies and the ability to penetrate atmospheric haze. Murky conditions that might be dismal for visual light photography can be clear and sharp in IR (see the comparison shots of Mt. Monadnock from Silver Lake). Undoubtedly the most striking difference, however, is that foliage strongly reflects IR light, transforming green leaves and grass into what may be mistaken for a frosty winter landscape.”


Mount Monadnock Through the Haze
 

Infrared Wall
A few weeks ago, I was shooting the interesting back alleys of Keene New Hampshire, and noticed a building whose back wall was covered with a dense thicket of ivy.  The green carpet was beautiful in full color, but it also made me think about how striking the same scene would appear if shot in Infrared.  This week I broke out my IR 20D and enjoyed shifting to my “Black and White” eye as I looked for strong subjects in the infrared spectrum, including that ivy wall.  


Harrisville, New Hampshire


























 

Like black and white  photography, Infrared requires a focus on patterns of light and dark, and, with IR, the contrasts between light and dark can be even more dramatic, as the frosty white of the foliage is seen against the dark of non-vegetative structures such as tree trunks, buildings, streams, roads, and the cool blue sky.  It is not always possible to be certain how a scene will be rendered in IR, but it is exciting to perform the experiments.






Looking for Contrast
Warm Summer Barn
When I shoot with IR, I am always looking for components that will contrast with the light greenery.  One of my favorite red barns in Keene, New Hampshire offers a good example.  The traditional RBG versions provides a lovely soft impression of a warm New England day.  The same scene in infrared is a much more striking view.  Part of this difference comes from the ability to push the contrast between the white foliage and the dark barn without color changes becoming an issue.

 



Infrared Color
Infrared images do not come from the camera in pure black and white.  Most often converted cameras yield an image which has a strong reddish tint.  
Unedited IR Image, Red Tint





 This tint can be quickly removed by a black and white conversion in Lightroom or Photoshop, but the red color can also be manipulated to create a range of special effects.  Most notably, the image can be processed through Photoshop’s Channel Mixer to create a blue sky by switching to the Red and Blue channels.  The Blue sky can be further isolated and enhance with localized adjustments in Photoshop.

 
Switching Red and Blue Channels
















Shooting in Infrared is another way that modern digital photography has simplified our ability to extend our senses.  It isn’t what we see with our own eyes, but it is just as “real”.  Much like slow motion allows us to see movement in a new way, or long exposures show us a different view of waterfalls, IR opens a way of looking beyond the limitations of our natural senses.  Plus, it is a lot of fun.


Finally, shooting with my old clunky 20D made me appreciate all the changes that have occurred in cameras, over the last few years, to improve the ease and quality of digital photography.  I am confident that, someday, I will be able to switch from RGB to IR photography with press of a button, or better shoot both at the same time.

Infrared photography is a different way of “seeing” that can refresh your eye.  If you have a neglected camera gathering dust in a corner, IR conversion is an easy and inexpensive way breath new life into old gear.  Summer in New England is filled with warm foliage which is blazing with infrared light.  So, go out and capture some of the glow.





You can see more of my Infrared images on my web site’s IR Gallery.

Our check out my earlier article:

Jeffrey Newcomer

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Using the Lightroom Reference Tool




Adobe regularly sends out updates to their Lightroom CC.  As the Creative Clouds “drift” by, these updates are often filled with new camera support and, hopefully, performance upgrades, but occasionally they slip in a new Tool to make things interesting.  These new gizmos are usually fun to play with, but it often takes a while to figure out what practical value they offer and how they might fit into my day-to-day workflow.  This was true for the new Reference Tool.

Enter the Reference Tool
Back a few months ago, the version 2015.8 (Catchy) included the addition of the Reference Tool in the Develop Module.  We are familiar with the Compare Tool in the Library Module, that allows a side-by-side comparison of two images. The Reference Tool appears in the same location in the Develop module as the Compare button, but exchanges the “X/Y” label for an “R/A” Label, standing for Reference and Active windows

The Reference tool allows you to compare two photos, with one a “Reference” image, which stays static, and the other a comparison image which can be edited (i.e. Active).  The usual goal is to match the Active image to the tone and color balance of the Reference.  

The Reference window can most quickly be opened by clicking on the R/A button or by using the short-cut “shift R”.  It is simple to set a reference image by dragging it onto the left window of the tool.  A single image or a series can then be moved to the right window and visually adjusted to the reference.

Easy, but when should you use the tool? 
Adobe suggests:

“This is helpful when making a group of images from a single event look similar or setting the white balance appropriately in mixed lighting conditions,”

Sunrise Challenge

Gradient Neutral Density and Flair

Nifty, but, until recently, I hadn’t found any situations in which this capability was helpful for my landscape photography.  Last week I was shooting a sunset from one of my favorite spots along Route 63 in Chesterfield New Hampshire.  The clouds were a bit too dense, and the sun peeking through them created excessively high contrast.  I tried using a graduated neutral density filter without much success and as usual adding an additional layer of glass just accentuate the flair coming from the brilliant solar disk..

  I tried a few shots, but then settled down to wait until after the sun dropped below the horizon.  In the meantime I studied the long shadow of my tripod and me, reaching back to the Chesterfield Firehouse.  Then the real show began.  As the sun set, the clouds lite up nicely.  Although the sky remained quit bright, the contrasts was easier to manage.  The problem then was to try to find a foreground with enough interest to balance the brilliant sunset glow.   From my location, the lovely pasture spread out toward the distant Vermont hills.  Classic, but rather bland, especially while mired in the shadows.  


Sunset Song

The sky was dramatic but I wanted to find something interesting to put in my foreground.  My first choice was a rather scraggly tree off to one side.  I was attracted by the flock of birds filing the branches, and ecstatically chirping at the fading gold.  It was a charming sunset sonata, but then I noticed cows grazing my way.   I had to scramble to get down to the herd’s level, but then I had my “foreground element”.   I was ready to go.   Again I tried to reduce the contrast with my Neutral density filter, but I got my best results by combining the graduated ND with a five exposure High Dynamic Range image.

Active Grazing


After processing, the sky came out beautifully and the foreground was reasonably exposed.  The problem was that the cows appeared blurred as they methodically grazed there way through the multiple exposures.

HDR Image


My Foreground Image, Exposed to the Right
Looking through the individual images, I found that all had some blurring, but some were less noticeable than in the HD image.  I decided to blend the foreground from one of the single images with the HDR sky.

To get better tonal quality and less noise, I selected my foreground picture from one of the brighter images.  Remember exposing to the right?  To make the blending easier, I wanted to darken the foreground image to closely approximate the tone and color balance of the HDR sky.  This is where the Reference Tool entered my workflow.



Reference Tool

Matched Images
I dragged my HDR image onto the reference window of the tool and then added the foreground to the comparison.  It was then a relatively easy matter to adjust the tone and color of my foreground image.  It wasn’t perfect, but after exporting it to Photoshop, the modified foreground image was close enough to easily to blend with HDR sky.  The final image showed the placid cows munching contentedly, totally oblivious to the spectacular fireworks hovering above their heads.  

Matching the Reference HDR Image, Step by Step


Final Composite Image
I could have roughly matched my two images without a dedicated side-by-side comparison, but the Reference Tool made this chore much easier and more precise.  I had to apply only a few minor adjustments to the masked foreground to reach a perfect the blend. The ability of the Reference Tool to match image layers for compositing is a great use for this new Lightroom feature, and allows me to comfortable position this new “gizmo” within my landscape workflow.

Check out more articles on Lightroom and Photoshop on my Blog at:
Photographic Editing (Photoshop & Lightroom) 

And watch here for information about my next Lightroom course, coming this winter. 
YES, winter is coming!


Jeffrey Newcomer

Sunday, July 9, 2017

The Lightroom Catalog (Basic Concepts)



My Lightroom Catalog
Actually, Melk Abbey Library, Austria


I’ve just finished my Introduction to Adobe Lightroom Class.    This was the fourth time I have offered the course and I have found two important themes that have been consistent throughout each of the sessions.  




First I am amazed how much I learn each time I prepare the material for the classes. My students always seem to come up with questions that challenge my own understanding of this remarkably capable program, and I am invariably stimulated to come up with refinements of my explanations. Perhaps, at some point, I will get it all right, but then it will be time to move on to something else.



The other persistant issue that seems to come out of every class is the confusion over the functions of the Lightroom Catalog.  This is so essential for the understanding of how Lightroom works that I spend much of my first two hour class discussing the topic, and yet the misunderstandings always seem to linger.  Mostly, it must be my fault, but I think sometimes the students are so excited to get to the “sexy” parts, especially the powerful editing functions, that they blow right past the boring nuts and bolts of how the program actually works.  At the end of this last class I asked everyone to suggest topics that could have benefited from greater emphasis and it all seemed to come down to the care and feeding of the Lightroom Catalog.  It was only after they had manipulated some images, tried to understand where those changes were to be found, and how to translate them to actual flesh and blood image files, that they appreciated the importance of that obscure catalog.



I’ll try to spend more time on the catalog in my next class, but here is another run at a few questions that might help to clarify what the Lightroom catalog is, and perhaps more importantly, what it is not.




Where do Image Files Go When they are Imported to Lightroom

The first problem is the word “Import”.  Import suggests that the image files are physically added to Lightroom and this is never true.  When images are imported, it is only information about the files that is stored in the Lightroom Catalog. Rather than “Import”, a better term might be “Referenced” since the original image file is not moved or altered.  Lightroom’s import process only involves “telling” the program essential pieces of information about the files, such as that the files exist, where they are located, and how they have been edited in the program.  This is easier to understand when Lightroom is importing information about images that are already on the computer, but confusion can occur when the files are being uploaded to the computer from memory cards.  Lightroom provides a convenient mechanism to import file information into the Lightroom Catalog, at the same time that image files are being uploaded to the computer, but it is important to understand the difference between uploading the physical image file and importing the file information to the Catalog.  Careful study of this overly busy flow diagram may be helpful in separating the two processes.





The Database Advantage

Unlike Adobe Bridge, Lightroom is not a file based management system.  Lightroom is a database, that keeps track of information about each image file.  For each image, the program registers only four pieces of information:

  1. A set of previews used to display and manipulate the image 
  2. A list of all the editing that's has been applied from within Lightroom
  3. The Metadata recorded within the file 
  4. The physical location of the file in the computer
Contents of Lightroom Catalog Directory

  • Catalog Data: [catalog name].lrcat
  • Image Previews: [catalog name] Previews.lrdata
  • Smart Previews (Lightroom 5 and later): [catalog name] Smart Previews.lrdata




Because Lightroom is a database, which manipulates relatively short text files, it can perform tasks, such as searching and sorting, much more quickly than file based programs, such as  Adobe Bridge.  This becomes more important when dealing with a large or scattered library.   When my own image library exceeded 400,000 pictures, Bridge became impractically cumbersome, and to take advantage of the efficiency of the database model, I finally made the jump to Lightroom. 


I can't resist pointing out that, although Melk Abbey's ancient library contains about 100,000 manuscripts, incunabula  (printed works before 1500), and books, my catalog has over 400k files, of course of slightly less antiquity.


Keep it in Lightroom : A Disadvantage

As an image management program, Lightroom is amazing, but it does have disadvantages.  Because Lightroom manipulates information about the images and not the image files themselves,  it requires more care with the movement of files.  It is important to establish the habit of only moving files from within Lightroom.  In one sense, Lightroom doesn’t “know” where an image file is, it only knows where we have  told it that it is located.  Files that are moved outside of Lightroom will be lost to the program, generating the dreaded "!" flag on the files, and "?" marking their directories. These orphans can be found and re-registered, but, a lot of pain can be avoided by following the “Keep it all in Lightroom” mantra.

 
Found It : Catabane Falls, Now gone



Where is the Lightroom Catalog?

The Lightroom Catalog is stored in a directory that can be located anywhere in the computer, but, by default, is found at:


Windows: \Users\[user name]\Pictures\Lightroom
Mac OS: /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom



 
If it is in a different location, it can be found in the Catalog Settings of the Lightroom Preferences.






    You can have as many catalogs as you wish.  Some photographers keep separate catalogs for work and personal images, but without a compelling reason to compartmentalize your work, a single catalog may be a simpler option.



    What Happens when I Edit Images in Lightroom

    Image Edited in Lightroom
    The essential thing to understand is that all editing in Lightroom is nondestructive.  Repeat after me, “Nondestructive”.   Changes that are made during editing are applied to the preview image in Lightroom, but not to the actual physical images.  


    Actual image is not altered on the drive while
    Lightroom Adjustments STAY in Lightroom
    These changes can be thought of a series of instructions that are saved with the image information in the Lightroom Catalog.  They affect the appearance of the preview image but are not applied to the pixels of an actual image until the
    file leaves Lightroom.  Stepping out of Lightroom occurs when editing switches to an external editor, such as Photoshop, or when the image is“Exported” to a physical file format, such as jpg, tif or psd.  This also occurs when images are shared such as in books, web pages or on social media.
    Export Dialog, Leaving Lightroom
     


    The key point is that all the editing changes you make are simply a set of instructions that don’t get applied until the image ventures from the warm safety of Lightroom into the dark, pixel based, world, and even then the original Raw file stays intact.  That is why there is no “Save” command in Lightroom.





    Wall's End, Guilford Vermont, 
    Final image with Lightroom Adjustments Exported the file


    The Nondestructive Life

    I hope this discussions has helped clarify some of the confusion about Lightroom Catalogs.  The more I try to simplify, the more complex it seems to get.  I have not covered many related topics such as how to move, combine, rename, back-up or delete catalogs.  This could be a topic for a future blog, but all of these details are clarified in numerous articles on the web.  



    Summing Up

    The essential thing to understand is that Lightroom is a database program used to keep track of images on your computer.  

    When you edit photos, rate them, add keywords to them, or make other changes, as long as you are in Lightroom, the  changes are stored in the catalog, but the photo files themselves are never touched. 








     
    Don’t you wish life was like this.  Try anything you want, take any risk, make disastrous mistakes, and it is ALL “nondestructive”.  When you finally like the results just press “Export”.