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| Gullfoss Falls |
I’ve got a couple of major projects
competing for my attention right now. Actually
three, but my taxes are nearly complete.
It is always surprising when I discover that I made money. As usual, last year it was not much, not
enough to live on, but for a landscape photographer anything in the positive is
good news. The other two demands on my
attention are even better.
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| Drowning Pool, Pingvellir National Park, Iceland |
First Susan and I just
returned from a to brief, long-weekend, trip to Iceland. I have always wanted to shoot in Iceland, and
we managed to stuff a lot in a short period of time. This tour convinced me that I must go back
for a longer visit, likely in a warmer season.
I came home with over 400 images to work on, and that has reminded me
about how dependent I am Adobe Lightroom as an essential part of my picture
editing workflow.
Shameless Self-Promotion
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| Pingvellir Gorge |
I am excited about my
up-coming Introduction to Adobe Lightroom Classic Course. The course will meet on six consecutive Tuesday
evenings from March 3rd through April 7th at 6pm. It will be a small group gathered around my
dining room table in Spofford New Hampshire.
There are a couple of spaces still open, so get in touch if you are
interested in learning about improving and organizing your images with this
amazing program. For more information,
check out my article about my spring teaching schedule or give me a call at
603-363-8338.
Given the Power of
Lightroom, Is Photoshop Necessary?
People often ask how much of
my image editing is done in Lightroom and how much in Photoshop. I feel strongly that, given the power and
ease of use, for the majority of digital photography enthusiasts, Lightroom is
all they will need to get started with image editing. In my own workflow, I use Lightroom for my
RAW editing, but I still routinely finish by moving my images to Photoshop for
varying degrees of final touch-up. Often
after my full Lightroom adjustments, there is little to do. I scan the image for small imperfections,
dust spots or other distractions that I find easier to remove using Photoshop’s
healing bush or cloning tool. Subtle
local adjustments in lighting or color can be applied more precisely using
layer masks, and of course, manipulations of pixels can best be performed from
within Photoshop.
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| Pingvallavatn Lake |
I almost always find
something to do in Photoshop to complete my image, but how much of a difference
does it really make and how much time do I spend using each of these
often-complimentary programs? I usually
tell people that I get 80-90% of my image editing done in Lightroom, but that
is just a guess. I decided to look at
the question in more detail as I edited some of my Iceland pictures.
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| Steaming, Geysir Hot Springs |
The plan was to measure how
much time I spent using the two programs, and also compare the images that resulted
from work in Lightroom Classic to that at
the end of my Photoshop “touch-up”. I
realize that time spent was not necessarily an accurate measure of the
contributions made by each program.
Lightroom’s intuitive workflow allows for substantial improvements in a
relatively short period of time, while subtle refinements in Photoshop can
often require more prolonged work. These examples do not include the time that I
spend getting the image ready for a full size JPG upload to the cloud (my web
site) and reducing the image size for use on my website.
Lightroom vs Photoshop
Three Little Horses
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| Final Web Image |
Let me start with an easy
one. All over Iceland you will notice
groups of small horses seeming to be totally oblivious to the wind and
cold. In years past these cute guys were
beasts of burden, but now, I am assured, their only job is to look cute at the
side of the road and attract tourist to stop for a petting party. We found this trio shortly after our visit to
the Geysir hot springs. All adorable,
but my favorite shot came when one found the need to comment.
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| Lightroom Edit |
Lightroom: This was an easy edit. I adjusted the whites and highlights to
retrieve some detail in the snow, while setting the black point. I boosted vibrance slightly and added a bit
of texture and clarity. I usually save
cropping for later in Photoshop, but here it was obvious that I had to get rid
of the elbow protruding on the left. A bit more work than usual : 15:00 minutes
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| Photoshop Edit |
Photoshop: This is one of those situations where there was
little to add with Photoshop. I used my
favorite Shadow/Highlight Tool to add a bit more detail to the wind scoured
snowy ground. I darkened and brought out
the color of the hair. Finally, I drew
the eye to the ”laughing” horse with a subtle splash of light. And I was done. I normally do a little sharpening in
Lightroom, but I don’t sharpen in Photoshop until I am ready to output the
image for a specific size and purpose. Sounds
like a lot but only 7:50 minutes
Total : 22:50 Minutes
Gullfoss Falls
One of Iceland’s most
dramatic waterfalls is the Gullfoss Falls.
It was truly breathtaking, but what also robbed me of breath was the hurricane
force wind that was screaming up the Hvita River Gorge. I would have loved to spend time exploring
all the different angles of this amazing spot, but given the conditions, I
could only find two spots that allowed me to stand with a desperate margin of
safety. How I avoided being blown away is a story for another time. Back at home I tried to make the best of what
I got.
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| Lightroom Edit |
Lightroom: My
first concern was to avoid blowing out the highlights in the snow and water, especially
in the waterfalls. I dropped down on the
highlight slider while watching to avoid making the foreground snow appear a
muddy gray. While setting the dark tones
I was careful to avoid losing detail in the rocks. I added a little Texture, Clarity,
Vibrance and a touch of sharpening. As
usual, I corrected the Chromatic Aberration.
I reserve cropping for later. 6:12 minutes
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| Photoshop Edit |
Photoshop: In Photoshop,
I started by using the arrange tool to compare four versions of this image,
side-by-side. Studying all the images at
100% magnification I was able to find one that was reasonably sharp. As my camera and I were being violently blown
about, it was surprising that any of the images were sharp. Next, I used the
Hue/Saturation Tool to bring out the blue in the water and ice. Finally, I went into the Camera RAW filter to
apply a bit more texture and Clarity. I
planned to use a layer mask to apply this effect just to the falls, but in the
end, I liked how adjustment brought out the rugged appearance across the image.
11:52 Minutes
Total : 18:02 Minutes
The Results
I did the time comparison on
two other images, both shots I took at the Geysir Hot Springs. For the record, here are the average times
for all four:
Lightroom: 13:30
Photoshop: 16:09
And for completeness, the average
time spent fine tuning, cropping, and sharpening for output of a high
resolution, full size JPG to the cloud and resizing and sharpening of the approx.
400kb web image:
11:15 Minutes
Grand Total: 40:58
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Photoshop Edit
Note the detail in the water |
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Hot Pot, Geysir Hot Springs
Lightroom Edit |
Too Much Time?
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Leif Erikson
Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral, Reykjavik |
Forty minutes for one image,
and these were nor especially challenging.
I can spend hours removing a dense net of wires if the underlying image
is strong enough. I know some very good
photographers who say that if they can’t finish editing in about 5 minutes,
they throw out the image. I think they
may be missing some great shots. Personally,
I know how hard I work to get in the right spot and strive to get the best
digit image in the camera. For me, no
amount of time is too much in the service of bringing an image to its full
glory. As Ansel Adams said, the original
negative (or now the raw file) is the score and the final print or image is the
performance. I think that these images
show that you can create great performances with Lightroom. The differences in the Photoshop image are
subtle, and I should note that I could have performed more refinements in
Lightroom, if I didn’t plan to move the image to Photoshop for further work
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| Reykjavik Iceland |
So get going with Lightroom and
if you need some place to start, I will be happy to welcome you at my dining room
table next week.
For more pictures of Iceland check out my Iceland Gallery. I will be adding more images over time.
For some professional
photographers, social distancing and cancellations can be a devastating
issue. I assume wedding, sports and
event photographers are hurting, but for most recreational and landscape
photographers, there is still plenty to shoot.
I don’t have to worry about social distancing from trees, lakes or
mountains. All I must do is stay away
from other photographers. Still,
self-quarantining has affected our lives in many ways and since photography
offers chances for escape from these pressures, I thought it might be helpful
to suggest some photographic opportunities both in and out of the home. 
We live in a
beautiful part of the country, but what can you shoot when you are stuck inside
of your home. After hip surgery, a few
years ago, I was largely restricted to the house. After the Hycodan wore off, I started looking
within my limited sphere for things to photograph and actually found quite a
lot. I started with macro photography,
and discovered detail all around that I had never noticed before. I hobbled
from room to room scanning for compositions made from some of the simplest
things, a clock face, detail in an old portrait and the decoration on a gourd
from the Galapagos Islands. Indoor
plants and flowers were also great subjects. 
