More on Lightroom2
Before modification with Lightroom2
©Bert Gildart: Have been reading Scott Kelby’s book on Lightroom2 and then trying to put into practice what I’ve been reading. The most dramatic example of what I can do at this stage of understanding is to post another image of Sean Vasquez, a Native American who may be on the verge of an acting career.
Regardless, as you can see from my posts of several weeks ago, Sean is extremely helpful when it comes to modeling. However, I wasn’t at all satisfied with the rendition shown to the left, so Lightroom to the rescue.
In order to make this photo with the washed out frame stand out I first had to darken the frame, difficult to do (at least for me) in PhotoShop, but not in Lightroom. First I used the exposure slider and reduced exposure by a factor of about 1. Then, using the Adjustment Brush, I selectively darkened just the window frame. That took care of that problem.
Because I hoped to impart an artistic quality to the image, I followed Kelby’s instructions and upped the Recovery, Fill, Contrast, Clarity and Vibrance sliders as far as they would go.
This tends to create a supersaturated look, so, again, in accordance to Kelby, I then dragged the Saturate slider all the way to the left thereby desaturating the image, but in a different way. The intention was to impart a gritty, artistic look, and to evaluate my efforts you’ll have to scroll down.
LIGHTROOM MASTER
Rich Charpentier, one of my friends who has been studying Kelby’s books for about a year, has mastered the elements of Lightroom and HDR (High Density Resolution). On his blog Rich posts thoughts on situations he’s encountered that might help those interesting in learning more about these two techniques. I think Rich is one of the country’s emerging photographers and will soon be recognized as one of the very best.
Results after using a variety of techniques suggested in Scott Kelby's book on Lightroom2.
Rich is also a good business man (even in a down economy) and co-owns a print gallery in Prescott. Much of his best work hangs on the gallery’s walls, but as well, he also posts a blog with photographs. You can see some of his recent work by logging onto his website, the link I just provided above. Scroll down here and you can also see an image of Rich, surrounded by some of his work.
PEG LEG
We’re still camped at Peg Leg in Anza Borrego State Park, soaking up the sunshine. Camping here is free, but does require some maintenance work and a routine. Considering the savings of $30 to $45 each night — depending on where we might camp commercially — we don’t mind at all. Can’t believe it, but we’ve been here almost two weeks, meaning a savings of over $400.
Rich Charpentier in his Prescott Gallery and commercial print shop surrounded by a few of his superb prints.
ROUTINE:
Each morning we rise, remove the solar panel from the back of the pickup, set it up so it faces the sun, and then wait for the miracle to happen. Within a few minutes we watch the gauge (which indicates that the use of heat and lights has dropped the charge of our batteries to about 65 percent) rise from its overnight low. The gauge does so as Solar Panel 1 begins to absorb amp hours of energy. Then as the sun rises even more and its rays begin to strike Solar Panes 2 and 3, both permanently mounted on top of our Airstream, yet more amp hours are added. By 9 a.m. we’re back to 100 percent battery charge, even though I may be using my inverter to power my laptop.
Probably we’ve also turned up the heat as overnight lows in the desert dip to the upper 30s, so our solar panels really do a job. Of course we also have to haul water occasionally, which is free from the park, and dump our grey and black water. We pay a fee of about $5 to dump though we only have to do so once every three weeks.
If the old gold miner Peg Leg could see us he’d probably exclaim, “Wow.” As it is, we say it often enough – and loud enough so that we suspect he still hears us, despite the fact he passed away back in 1866.
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THIS TIME TWO YEARS AGO:
*Pero, The Luckiest Mouse Alive
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