Photography by Randy Hanna

While discussing image storage and management the other day with a past safari client, I mentioned that I am tossing fewer and fewer images into the electronic abyss these days.   If fact, I frequently find myself returning to Lightroom (LR)  to process some of those shots that dropped out on the first cut.  With the ability of LR to often effectively recover overexposed images with ease, I am often surprised what I can pull out of the trash can (you can also do this recovery in Photoshop however, LR seems just a little more intuitive to me).  The image below is a screen shot of the develop module showing the results of before and after processing.  Normally I would have simply made a terminal pass of this image due to an accidental setting in my camera.  With LR I can recover images such as these with ease.  Even more powerful is LR3; with impressive improvements from LR2, it is my mainstay for processing my digital images.  Setting the white and black points with a brightness correction results in a totally usable image.  Additional enhancements included a gentle “S” curve and other minor tweaks.  Total processing time on this image was less than 2 minutes.  Once I am happy with the final image, I export to PS CS5 for sharpening and  final print preparation.

The finished image ready for web is below.  BTW, I have never seen skies as blue as those in Namibia (no enhancement to the skies).

May 2009, Nikon D300, 17-55mm @ 55mm, ISO 200, f/10 at 1/160 sec

Cheers and happy photo’ing

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Mother and Six Cubs

Nikon D2x, 500mm, f 5.6 at 1/500 sec

One of my all time favorite shots from my 2008 Safari.  While it is not uncommon to see a  mother Cheetah and a couple of cubs, not often do you see six cubs.  Our guides estimated the age of the cubs to be about two months.  The great event was seeing the same mother and five of the six cubs in 2009 as they chased down a Reed Buck.

Cheers and happy photo’ing

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As noted in my previous posting, I had an opportunity last Friday to participate in a Nik Software webinar previewing their new HDR solution.  Nik representatives were also on hand at the Glazers Camera Shore Street Fair (Seattle) this past weekend, so I have plenty of time to pick the brains of the Nik folks.  What did I learn?  They are very busy reworking their entire software line to support the 64bit Photoshop CS4 and CS5 (no real surprise here, but it was refreshing to know they are working it hard).  They know they are behind in this effort and are really pushing to reset their software (currently all of their products work in the Lightroom  (LR) and Photoshop (PS) environment however only Viveza is currently available in the 64bit PS environment) .  Back to Nik HDR – This new software will be available for PS and LR and will be offered in both 32 and 64 bit plug-in applications vs. a stand alone program.  The interface carries the classic user interface that Nik users have come to love, especially the U-point control technology which allows for pin-point controls across the image.  The HDR program carries an effects preview pane in the LR Navigator window very similar to Silver Effects or Color Effects, allowing the photographer to visually see the proposed enhancement before actually committing to the change.  While Nik’s approach is wonderful for those wanting to put their foot into the HDR pond without having to learn all about tone-mapping, it’s power really lies in using the U-point control technology to ‘get at’ the changes  you need to make without getting into complicated selective masking in PS.  Another real sweet feature is the effort-less manner in which images are selected for inclusion into the HDR solution (using the LR interface).   Along with Lucas Art and Photomatix, Nik HDR will be a welcomed addition to my HDR kit bag.  Look for a late July release (estimated) for the NIK HDR product.  No pricing information available. 

Cheers and happy photo’ing

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As many of you know, I use all of the NIK products (usually) in much of my digital photo development.  I also use a number of products in my High Dynamic Range work, so I am always on the lookout for the lastest and greatest developments in these areas.  You can imagine my excitment when I ran across this annoucement while I was crusing the net late last night: ‘Nik Software about to release their own version of HDR software’.  I am hopeful that it will be a plug-in for Lightroom as well as PS4/5.  Based on my previous experiance with the Nik product line, it is sure to be a hit for those of us that play in the HDR zone.  For now, sign up for additional information on their advanced release notice over at Nik Software.  As soon as I get my hands on this, I will be sure to review it along with my two cents worth.

http://niksoftware.com/index/sneakpeek/HDR.php

Cheers and happy photo’ing

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