I've done one!

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Name
Simon Everett
Edit My Images
Yes
Having been studying you toob tutorials for what seems like weeks.... I was up early this morning and rode up to Mow Cop.... this was about 04.50, after an aborted timelapse of 40 odd minutes - the wind blew the tripod over, despite being weighed down by my camera bag for ballast. It blew me off my rock too, at one point. Great for scudding clouds though.Mow Cop dawn-8459.jpg

AND, I have saved it at 50%, as per instructions on here so it should load.

It took me about 15 minutes to find how to get at the folder on the computer, but once I found it on the list, the rest went relatively easily. I would like more shadow depth, but I can always redo it now I have something to practice on. I have to confess, I am going by eye rather than knowing what each slider is actually doing. The effect I can see, but what is going onbehind the scenes is just smoke and mirrors to me.
 
I love this. I know there are people out there that go on saying it's too HDR, too fake but I for one think this is a stunning technique. Need to devote some time to looking into this method myself and give myself a new area to get into!
 
Nice picture, very dramatic and I like the moody clouds. Now I am going to have to research this technique and have a go myself !
 
I love this. I know there are people out there that go on saying it's too HDR, too fake but I for one think this is a stunning technique. Need to devote some time to looking into this method myself and give myself a new area to get into!

It isn't an HDR, it is just over processed I expect.

30 seconds at 100, about f5.6 I think. The 10 stop filter adds some magenta cast that I am not good enough to know how to get rid of - that is what designers are for (and the rest of the processing, normally I would just give them a jpeg straight out of the camera and let them get on with it. It saves a load of faffing around and having to learn how to use a confuser).
 
Generally unrealistic appearance.
Over processed.
Magenta colour cast.
Halos around tower.
 
Very informative - how do I do any different? This is my first processing attampt with this Lightroom thing.
As camera club judges frequently say "This is just my opinion, someone else may have a different opinion."

It's been a long time since I used Lightroom, but I seem to recall that judicious use of the "Clarity" slider was a major contributor to halos.
The high density (10 stop?) filter has resulted in a magenta cast, a common problem which should be fairly easy to remove - if you don't know how then I'm sure there are lots of tutorials on the subject. Try searching On-Line, or I can recommend the Martin Evening guide to LR.
If you don't know how to use the software then maybe you should start with something a little less ambitious?
Learn the basics and then move on to something more advanced.

What I find "unrealistic" is the smearing of the clouds, which looks completely unnatural to me.
Some people may regard long exposures as "creative" but I despise them as being unnatural and unrealistic.
I also think the fence divides the image and diverts your eye away from the main subject.
 
As camera club judges frequently say "This is just my opinion, someone else may have a different opinion."

It's been a long time since I used Lightroom, but I seem to recall that judicious use of the "Clarity" slider was a major contributor to halos.
The high density (10 stop?) filter has resulted in a magenta cast, a common problem which should be fairly easy to remove - if you don't know how then I'm sure there are lots of tutorials on the subject. Try searching On-Line, or I can recommend the Martin Evening guide to LR.

If you don't know how to use the software then maybe you should start with something a little less ambitious?
Learn the basics and then move on to something more advanced.

What I find "unrealistic" is the smearing of the clouds, which looks completely unnatural to me.
Some people may regard long exposures as "creative" but I despise them as being unnatural and unrealistic.
I also think the fence divides the image and diverts your eye away from the main subject.

I have always used Nikon's NX2 for the minimal editing I have had to do - I have always just handed pictures over to a designer to do all this stuff to. 'Digital trannies' is basically what I provided - as in, they got what came out of the camera, and did their own buggering around. For speed, jpegs, not RAW - I didn't have time todo anything but download, do a quick trash edit, and burn to a CD to hand over.

I still have NX2 but was given Lightroom 6 - I have spent about 200 hours watching tutorials on it before trying to do anything with it. I shall certainly watch the chappie you have suggested. The slider things are easy enough to use... the way the storage works is an absolute nightmare! How it decides where to put stuff and how you find it when you download from the camera is just a bloody lottery as far as I can work out. It took me about 15 minutes to find the pictures in the folder it downloaded to. That is not easy to work out at all.
 
...the way the storage works is an absolute nightmare! How it decides where to put stuff and how you find it when you download from the camera is just a bloody lottery as far as I can work out. It took me about 15 minutes to find the pictures in the folder it downloaded to. That is not easy to work out at all.

If using Windows when in LR you can right click on a file then select Show in Explorer. That will open the folder the file is in.
 
I have always used Nikon's NX2 for the minimal editing I have had to do - I have always just handed pictures over to a designer to do all this stuff to. 'Digital trannies' is basically what I provided - as in, they got what came out of the camera, and did their own buggering around. For speed, jpegs, not RAW - I didn't have time todo anything but download, do a quick trash edit, and burn to a CD to hand over.

I still have NX2 but was given Lightroom 6 - I have spent about 200 hours watching tutorials on it before trying to do anything with it. I shall certainly watch the chappie you have suggested. The slider things are easy enough to use... the way the storage works is an absolute nightmare! How it decides where to put stuff and how you find it when you download from the camera is just a bloody lottery as far as I can work out. It took me about 15 minutes to find the pictures in the folder it downloaded to. That is not easy to work out at all.
Yes, the "Catalog" was one of the reasons I was happy to see the back of Lightroom, plus I wasn't happy paying the monthly hire charge.
I originally thought the highlight recovery in LR was the best, and at the time it probably was, but subsequent auditioning shows there are several programs that can now do better.
As I said, don't try to be too ambitious and start with something simple to learn the program.
Getting rid of the colour cast should be quite simple.
 
I have always used Nikon's NX2 for the minimal editing I have had to do - I have always just handed pictures over to a designer to do all this stuff to. 'Digital trannies' is basically what I provided - as in, they got what came out of the camera, and did their own buggering around. For speed, jpegs, not RAW - I didn't have time todo anything but download, do a quick trash edit, and burn to a CD to hand over.

I still have NX2 but was given Lightroom 6 - I have spent about 200 hours watching tutorials on it before trying to do anything with it. I shall certainly watch the chappie you have suggested. The slider things are easy enough to use... the way the storage works is an absolute nightmare! How it decides where to put stuff and how you find it when you download from the camera is just a bloody lottery as far as I can work out. It took me about 15 minutes to find the pictures in the folder it downloaded to. That is not easy to work out at all.

Don’t blame the program.. YOU tell it where to download the images too. On the Import tab you select where you want the images to go, lightroom can automatically create folders usually by date, but again, you tell it how and where they go. You dont even really need to know where they are, Lightroom handles everything inside itself. Import, develop and then export to wherever you want. You don’t need to touch the original files In their original location.
 
Yes, the "Catalog" was one of the reasons I was happy to see the back of Lightroom, plus I wasn't happy paying the monthly hire charge.
I originally thought the highlight recovery in LR was the best, and at the time it probably was, but subsequent auditioning shows there are several programs that can now do better.
As I said, don't try to be too ambitious and start with something simple to learn the program.
Getting rid of the colour cast should be quite simple.
Thanks - I don't pay a subscription, mine is a fixed version! One of the reasons I have got it. It is a licenced version, but if I went for updates/upgrades then I would have to go on subscription.

How do I get rid of the magenta in the sky without making the grass go nuclear?
 
Don’t blame the program.. YOU tell it where to download the images too. On the Import tab you select where you want the images to go, lightroom can automatically create folders usually by date, but again, you tell it how and where they go. You dont even really need to know where they are, Lightroom handles everything inside itself. Import, develop and then export to wherever you want. You don’t need to touch the original files In their original location.

Blimey. I will read that again a couple of times, and come back to it, to try and fathom out how it works. Thank you.
 
Thanks - I don't pay a subscription, mine is a fixed version! One of the reasons I have got it. It is a licenced version, but if I went for updates/upgrades then I would have to go on subscription.

How do I get rid of the magenta in the sky without making the grass go nuclear?


Use the HSL sliders (there are eight). Some might say that the grass is already nuclear and you can reduce the saturation using the green and/or yellow sliders.

To help you get an idea of what you should aim for in your processing, set you camera to take RAW + jpeg. The jpeg will show you what potential the file has, and you can use the RAW file to work out how to get there. You may find that you prefer a slightly different "look" to the jpeg that the camera gave you; that is the advantage of using RAW.
 
I seem to recall that judicious use of the "Clarity" slider was a major contributor to halos.

Lightroom (and indeed most photo software) seems to cause halos when processing is pushed hard, especially where lenses don't have the best edge sharpness or handle high contrast transitions well. Where you have to push highlight/shadow sliders then keeping the adjustment below 85% seems to reduce the issue.

As for clarity, a tutorial I once watched suggested the slider should never exceed +/-30 units, and I've only ever found 2 pictures that required me to break that rule (both taken using a Sigma 600mm mirror lens with incredibly low comtrast and sharpness).

As for the colours, at 4.50am the sky is likely to be a bit magenta, but I'd try backing off either general saturation or vibrance a few points to reduce the level of 'fallout'.

I still have NX2 but was given Lightroom 6 - I have spent about 200 hours watching tutorials on it before trying to do anything with it. I shall certainly watch the chappie you have suggested. The slider things are easy enough to use... the way the storage works is an absolute nightmare! How it decides where to put stuff and how you find it when you download from the camera is just a bloody lottery as far as I can work out. It took me about 15 minutes to find the pictures in the folder it downloaded to. That is not easy to work out at all.

I would never recommend allowing software to store your images for you. Instead I would create a folder for images somewhere you will remember, then within that create separate folders to store images either by topic (Backstreet Heroes photoshoot July 2020) or date (2020.07.10 + subject if relevant - so that they are easy to sort if you ever copy them to another drive and they all get assigned the same 'creation' date).

Once you've done that then LR can import them from the location where you saved them.

:)
 
Thanks for that - I do use shoot names, because I don't remember WHEN I did somethng, but I will know name or subject. I create folders - it is finding them in Lightroom that I am struggling with.
 
I never have done.. I don't know what to write. I have just spent 40 minutes fighting with Lightroom again this morning, trying to find the pictures I downloaded yesterday.... the folder does not appear on the list, but when I go and check my folders, it is there..... unlike NX2, Lightroom does NOT show you all your folders, only those you have imported. I don't have to do that before, which is why I couldn't work it out.

I am a bit disappointed with the drone camera. It isn't a patch on my Nikon compact, which is 8 or 9 years old now and still producing great shots, even in difficult lighting (shooting RAW on both).
 
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Very informative - how do I do any different? This is my first processing attampt with this Lightroom thing.
That’s part of making your “style” some landscape photographers dont process reality but make their images “pop”. The art if the balance between making an image pop and going to far and ending up with “insta filter”
 
What the hell is an 'insta filter'? I swear people talk a different language nowadays.
 
What the hell is an 'insta filter'? I swear people talk a different language nowadays.

By degrees, you and me both!!!

I think that might be a reference to Instagram and it's filters for making uploaded photographs "look better to get more likes......"
 
I never have done.. I don't know what to write.
Place and subject are two keywords I tend to apply to everything when importing for a batch. If for a project then also the name of that project, if of an event name of that event, and so on. Then after import add more specific keywords to individual or groups of files - easiest done using the Painter (Aerosol icon) tool for lots of files or by selecting groups of files.

Hope this helps.
 
I have just spent 40 minutes fighting with Lightroom again this morning, trying to find the pictures I downloaded yesterday.... the folder does not appear on the list, but when I go and check my folders, it is there
Lightroom does NOT show you all your folders, only those you have imported.
I think you answered your own question, you need to import the images.
If you are downloading into your own file system it may be an idea to set up a 'watched folder'...
How to set up watched folders.
 
Import the photos off the sd card using Lightroom and you won’t have any of these issues.
It’s not really designed to import files from existing folders..Whilst of course it can, the whole system is a catalogue based system, so do everything using LR and it organises itself. You don’t need to know where the files are kept on the computer, as you find them inside Lightroom.
 
I'd be interested to know the basis for this statement.

Because the whole import process within lightroom is aimed at collating images in a catalogue. It wants to sort them for you.
Like I said , of course you can copy them yourself into a folder, and then enter Lightroom and import them, but what’s the point when you can setup Lightroom to do it in one step? You can tell Lightroom exactly where you want them put, what you want the files called, what you want the folders called, you can even create backups all in one fell swoop.
Why waste time copying them manually from an sd card to a folder and then importing from the folder to Lightroom?
 
It strikes me as far easier to copy the files yourself, then simply point LR at the folder and tell it to import. Certainly you can leave it up to LR, but I'd say LR is very much designed to import images from where ever it's pointed & told to import from.
 
I think I need someone to show me. I have read what you have all written, but I don't necessarily understand the words. I only got Lightroom to deal with the drone stuff, but I have found that much more difficult than I thought too. I am becoming pretty disillusioned with the whole photography thing now, I think I have reached my ceiling and it is getting beyond me.
 
It strikes me as far easier to copy the files yourself, then simply point LR at the folder and tell it to import. Certainly you can leave it up to LR, but I'd say LR is very much designed to import images from where ever it's pointed & told to import from.

I really don’t understand that logic, but each to their own. If you find it easier That way then great.
 
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