Category Archives: lightroom
Akeem – Portrait With Available Light
It’s been while I didn’t post about my son, Akeem. Well he is 5 month old now. Been practising to prone all by himself since 2 weeks ago. He did whenever he got his chance, even when he was asleep. So I decided to take photo of him in prone position. He cries before I got the chance to shoot him. So I asked assistant from my daughter to keep him busy, but it was my mistake. What can you expect from a 4 year old girl to entertain her younger brother? He cried even louder this time, so I need professional assistant, his mother.
Mother is the best, just few second he stopped crying. While my wife keep him entertained with very noisy toy bells, I kept giving direction to my wife where to position that toy.
There was no special equipment other than camera (Fujifilm X-Pro1 with Fujinon 35mm 1.4). I placed my son near to our bedroom window, do little adjustment on the window’s curtains so the lights only falls in front of my son while leaving the background dark. My aim of this shot is to make sure is face to properly lit, and to get the catchlight. His spontaneous action by putting his thumb in his mouth added the bonus.
© 2014 Mohd Shukur Jahar. Any unauthorized copy, usage or reproduction of the image is strictly prohibited.This photo is copyrighted. If you want to license this photo please contact the photographer at email : shukurjahar@gmail.com or call at : +6 0168307892
Related Post:
- New Family Member | Baby Boy
- Newborn Photography
- Newborn Photography | Muhammad Faiq Hakeem
- Baby Portrait With Fujifilm X-Pro1
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VCSO FILM 04 : SLIDE
VSCO film tools has long been creating what we believe to be the best film emulsion presets for digital photographers. Last Wednesday, the company announced Film Pack 4: Slide, a new pack of emulators that help photographers recreate the look of various slide film stocks in digital photos. It’s “the most authentic film emulation available,” the company says.
The pack includes 11 different films (with variations of each), and a total of 117 presets.
The software is available for Lightroom (4/5) and Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop (CS6/CC). VSCO Film Pack 4 also brings some other, more general improvements to the plugin. It features more custom camera profiles, including Fuji, Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus and Leica models, and an increased range of blues and blacks for VSCO Tools.
You can get VSCO Film 04 here. The normal price is $119, but you will get 25% discount for limited time. As an owner of previous VSCO Film packs, they offered 50% off until 20th August 2013.
Here are some result of using VSCO Film 04.
Fuji Astia 100F-
Kodak E100G HC
Fuji Fortia SP
Fuji Provia 400X+++
I Love Backlight
I’ve been fascinated by tons of backlight photos over flickr & 500px users. In my opinion, backlight images creates more impact on the subject mood.
The backlight can be a natural or artificial source of light. When artificial, the back light is usually placed directly behind the subject. Backlighting helps to provide separation between the subject and its background. Backlighting will cause the edges of his or her hair to glow if he or she has fuzzy hair. This gives an angelic halo type effect around the head.
For the image above, i wasn’t planned to shoot that day until we made a stop at local grocery. While waiting for my wife to buy some stuff at the grocery, i realised that there is good quality of light from the sun and i see there’s a good spot just in front of the car park. It takes just second for me to ask my daughter to just stand at the point i want it to compose. I took several shots and it came out this image which is the one i’m satisfied the most, although it there was distraction from the leave in front with the lens flare. The catchlight on the eyes added bonus as we actually in the shade area. We couldn’t stay longer as the mosquitos keep on dining at my feet. The pose of my daughter was not posed by me, it was her spontaneous pose while i’m keep on shooting.
Picture Control on Camera & Lightroom Preview
This issue has been occured to me for several years when i started using lightroom.
Did you notice that when we shoot in RAW and we did (for nikon) set picture control for example; Landscape, Vivid, Portrait, Monotone,.. etc, just after few second the imported those images in our lightroom library, it will become dull, but it appears to be fine (images with picture control setting) few seconds earlier?
If you never notice this before, try this:
1. Shoot in RAW with Monotone setting on Picture Control
2. Import images in Lightroom
3. You will notice, all images viewed in black and white as we see in our camera LCD
4. After done importing and collecting data of that image, Lightroom will generate their own preview which the black and white image to be replaced.
5. You should get what i mean by now 🙂
I never bother this issue before, but i keep on wondering why does lightroom did not read the picture control setting. Here’s my findings:
1. Does Picture Control adjustment have any effect when shooting in raw mode?
No. The Picture Control settings are stored as metadata within the NEF file. If you open the NEF in Capture NX 2, then the values are applied, but of course you can change them. In ViewNX, I think you have to press the RAW button to see the full effects of any picture control settings.
I believe that pressing the RAW button opens the RAW image, whereas otherwise you are looking at the embedded JPEG
If you open the NEF in non-Nikon software, eg Lightroom, some of the settings may be applied, eg sharpening (at least, Thom Hogan suggests this may be the case). So you might want to set shaprpening to 0.
Picture controls do not affect RAW, even when you open in CaptureNX. The settings might be displayed but you can undo them. The issue is that the Picture controls affect the processing to JPEG, even the embedded JPEG, and that all your camera information uses the JPEG, not the RAW file to display information.
So, your histograms and your highlight detector work off the (embedded) JPEG, not the RAW file. This can mislead you as you may think there is overexposure, while this is not the case.
Therefore, to answer your question: directly they do not affect your RAW file, but indirectly, they can by telling you to adjust exposure when that is in fact not needed.
Source: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/35631926
2. Lightroom and Pre-“Picture Control” Nikon DSLRs
Lightroom seems to only offer the “picture control” options in the camera calibration section and does not “recognize” the old way of setting image parameters.
In Lightroom, images taken with my pre-“picture control” camera are much different then if opened with View NX or Capture NX. They are so much off, in fact, that I have had to replace the smooth interface of LR with the clunkiness that is Capture NX. I would love to be able to use LR and have images look as close as possible to CNX or VNX but just could not tweak the colors to get close.
If you are shooting raw images then Lightroom will not read those cameras settings. That isn’t the way Lightroom is designed. Of course, they will always look different when viewed using Nikon’s Software because it will read all of those settings. If you want those settings included in your pictures in Lightroom then you will have to shoot JPEG.
The reason Lightroom will not read those settings on your camera or any other camera is because they are put in nonstandard places in the camera data. And Lightroom will not read those settings because they are different for every camera manufacturer. If you are looking for software that will read those settings then you’ll have to purchase software from Nikon.
The profiles that were mentioned are designed to match the corresponding camera settings, but the new picture styles I don’t think will ever be supported.
Adobe Lightroom Tips: Adjusting Time Zones
Its been a while since my last post related to Adobe Lightroom Tips. There are hundred of features in lightroom that i have no idea where to start with. This post might be useful for those who travelling more often which involving the time zone difference.
It happened to me too when i was on our trip to Nepal last week. Altering the time zone in my camera has never came in my mind while i’m there until i reached home. It wasn’t a big issue, but i want the capture time to be relevan to the local time where the images were taken. I can’t imagine having sunrise at 9AM in Asia.
Fortunately, adjusting time zones just few clicks away in Lightroom. There might be different way to adjust the time zone, but this is what i did:
-after importing photos, i selects the images that i want to time zone adjustment. I prefer to view images in grid view (G) so i can view it in smaller thumbnail (+/-) and easily identifying which images needed time adjustment.
-selects images by holding”shift” key and click on the starting images needed correction and the last. (You know this better)
-go to metadata>edit capture time…
-and this dialog window will appear
-There are 3 type of adjustment/way to edit the capture time, i would like to just use the second option by shifting number hours but i need to alter -2hours and 15 minute.
-So i choose the first option by entering the correct time.
-Click “change all”, a friendly reminder will appear to confirm your action as this could not be undone.
-problem solved 🙂
Colorspace | Adobe RGB, sRGB & ProPhoto RGB
In my previous post about exporting with Lightroom (here), i had mentioned my recommendation about using sRGB colorspace if you want to upload the image/s to any websites.
I’m not trying to be too technical here, but you can get more details on this in full here.
“…..Basically its the amount of color that is contained in the file when you save it. The three most common colorspaces are Adobe RGB, sRGB, and ProPhoto RGB”
“……..but the problem is that not all devices can actually display the larger colorspace which can cause even more problems when it comes to viewing the images, add to that the lack of color management in most applications (like web browsers) and you will often get dull or washed out colors when viewing the images…”
“….If you use a colorspace that allows MORE colors, than why would the images look WORSE when viewing them? The answer that since almost no devices can actually display Adobe RGB, you wind up with an intepretation of the image causing it to look dull…”
Here i upload the 3 series of same image using different colorspace:
ProPhoto RGB
Adobe RGB
sRGB
Updates:
– I found out Firefox managed to do good job on the color profile, if you’re using Google Chrome, try open this post in Firefox, all images are now viewed in their own color profile… well done Firefox.
Adobe Lightroom Tips: Lightroom Export (Image Sizing)
After done working on our images in develop module, we might want to share it. Be it in prints, or to upload it on any website.
To go to export dialog, hit CTRL + Shit + E / CMD + Shift + E.
As we scroll down the menu, theres a title “Image Sizing”
This feature is pretty useful for us to determine what are the appropriate output for different usage.
Let’s say you and to export and share it on Facebook
Click on Resize To Fit and select dimension
I choose 2048 x 2048 pixel with resolution of 72.
Make Image format is set to JPEG sure in the “File Setting” and select sRGB as your color space because most of the website recognize sRGB rather than AdobeRGB (1998). But if you do, the websites will automatically strips down the color space and change it with sRGB and there you will see the image might look slightly different than it suposed to be when the image are uploaded.
Hit the export and now the image are ready to be uploaded to any website
Some stock images requires us to submit at least 4 megapixel image. In this case, go back to the Image Sizing in Export dialog.
Check the Resize to Fit and select Megapixel. And you know what to do after this step. 🙂
Just in case you want to export multiple image with different types of layout (landscape & portrait). It is a total mess to play around by specifying sizes in dimension, width & height. The trick here is to key in the long side for example 10×10 inch or you can try Long Edge or Short Edge, and this is going to put your nerves away.
Portable Mini Studio at Kolej Yayasan Sabah (KYS)
Kolej Yayasan Sabah recently held a talk “MUSLIMAH DI BENTUK TERDIDIK GENERASI”. A good friend of mine, Azman Jumat has been invited to participate by running a mini-studio during the event. . Thanks to KYS management for providing us appropriate space for the photoshoot.I was there as photographer’s assistant. We use Lightroom 4 for tethered shooting so that the shots can be viewed directly from laptop soon after it was taken which is way much more better than viewing it on that 3inch LCD Screen. Below are some pictures taken during the photoshoot session. Special thanks to talents of Montorque Boutique Collection for supporting our photoshoot session.
Adobe Lightroom Tips: Survey View
Often time when i imported my photo files into my computer, i have such problem of selecting images that was taken in just split second, sometimes up to 5 images are all almost the same. Moving from one image to another can be tricky as we are trying to find which are the best among the selected images. Well, not anymore, you now can do it in Lightroom to compare the images in one window by using Survey view in Library module.
To do so, first you need be in Library Module and select images that you want to decide as the final selection or the best.
Adobe Lightroom Tips: Survery View | Select images to be viewed in Survey View
Once you have selected the images, hit “N” to view selected images in Survey mode. I recommend only to select & view 6 images at one time as the image preview will get smaller as the number of selected images increased. Viewing those 6 image in at one time isn’t quite bad, you can zoom in each images in the survey mode if required to view more of the details.
Adobe Lightroom Tips: Survery View | The Survey View
Adobe Lightroom Tips: Survery View | Survey View in Fullscreen mode
After viewing those images, now you can shortlist you selection by eliminating images that doesn’t fit your requirement. To eliminate the images, click “x” on the bottom right of each image, the “x” only appear when you mouse-up on the image. You too can hold “ctrl or cmd” and click the image to eliminate them. As you eliminate the images, the remaining images preview gest bigger, it really helps you to make your decision in larger view.
Adobe Lightroom Tips: Survery View | Survey View after eliminate 2 images
Adobe Lightroom Tips: Survery View | Survey View after eliminate 3 images
The image that have been eliminate will automatically deselected from the selection so that you can just proceed to do whatever you want to do with the remaining selected images.
Adobe Lightroom Tips: Survery View | Remaining images stays in selection.
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing” – Theodore Roosevelt
PHOTOGRAPHY . TRAVEL . FAMILY 