adobe lightroom 4.3

I have been a fan of Lightroom for a number of years now and consider it to be if not the best then certainly one of the best programs for sorting and editing photographs.

Lightroom 4 is something special. I has breathed new life into my old camera by giving me almost a stop more in both the lights and darks. The difference in processing is quite something. I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about this here - much has been written elsewhere and all I would be doing at this point is repeating what should be obvious to anyone who is following the subject even remotely.

However, LR4.3 is pretty nifty, and that is worth mentioning. I am not 100% sure what fixes they did with the software, but I have noticed a big improvement in the tones I am seeing from my pictures.

Here is a shot from the Fuji X10 (processed from a DNG made from the Fuji Raw Format.)

This picture is nothing special really as a picture. I used the onboard flash as a fill flash and just took it. There was no "purpose" to the photograph beyond seeing how fast the new memory card zipped along. What I noticed is that after minimal processing, none of the blacks are blocked up, and none of the highlights are blown. The colour and tone look better than what I was getting before, even with earlier versions of LR4 (never mind 3 or 2).

Here are a couple of shots from my Olympus E-3 and 50-200mm swd lens (processed from DNG files made from Olympus Raw Format.)

Just a shot because I was bored while waiting for a friend to finish his photograph. This is my Golf. What is worthy of note is that the in camera jpeg preview showed the sky blown out totally since the camera metered off of the shadowed side of my black car. Once in LR4.3, the sky appeared with no processing. After minimal processing, detail came out in the sky and in the shadows under the car. The only blocked blacks are a little bit in the holes in the rims near the brakes and a tiny bit in the rear wheel well. None of the highlights were blown. Again, the tones are very progressive to my way of looking at it.

To me, this one is just delicious. Yes, I got the exposure right, but the tones LR4.3 were able to bring out strike me as better than what I was getting before.

Time for a direct comparison I think.

Here is an older photograph, processed with an older version of Lightroom. I believe it was Lighroom 2 seeing as it was taken in the fall of 2009 and I did not ever have Lightroom 1. Both pictures were denoised slightly using Nik Define 2.0

Processed in LR2 - note, the lights picture right are totally blown out. The shadows are also a bit too deep.

Processed in LR4.3 - note, nothing is clipped or blocked up and the shadows could withstand more lightening without degrading the picture, particularly around the wing. Look at the picture large (click on it) to see what I mean. As an aside, this picture is noisier than the above one, but I did nothing to reduce it except for a slight bump in LR4 unlike with the original where I used Nik Define 2 since it holds up well when viewed at a normal distance.

Here is a more challenging example of the differences between the older versions of Lightroom and LR4.3.

Processed in LR3. The blacks in the original Raw were completely blocked up on the island, stump, and lower right hand corner. Processing to the point seen here largely fixed that up.

This is the exact same file processed in LR4.3. The blocking is gone, and so much more appeared - both detail and colour - than could be attained with LR3.

So, is the jump to LR4 worth it if you are sitting on the fence?

In a word, yes.

four legged fury

Ever try and haul your behind out of bed when you know you should and you just don't want to?

That was me this morning.

Temperatures dropped last night to below freezing and the hope I had was for clear blue skies and frost fog. Unfortunately for that plan, it did not get cold enough to produce frost - instead, everything was dripping and damp under an overcast sky, making the landscape appear muted and quiet.

View over the field opposite our house

The sun, vainly trying to poke through the clouds

One thing worthy of note. Someone, I don't know who, but I am guessing people from the University of Waterloo or perhaps the Grand River Conservation Authority, removed a beaver dam on the creek feeding into Columbia Lake right before the winter freeze up. The dam was a new one, and was causing the creek to back up. It was not preventing water from reaching this unnatural human made "lake" but did create a new pond and deeper water which the local duck population used and would have created a spot for larger fish to flourish (Columbia "Lake" is very shallow - a water filled mud pan in fact). Somewhat ironically, all the beavers had the nerve to do was create a new pond in much the same way that people created a "lake" at Columbia Lake. Hrmmmmm.  For whatever reason, it was removed very close to freeze up which may cause the beavers some difficulties since they live on the branches they submerge in their ponds through the winter.

Here is where the dam was. Out of the picture on the right up on the creek bank was a mound of sticks and branches caked in mud that had made up the dam's structure. This is what makes me believe that the dam was removed rather than damaged naturally and washed away.

There was not much bird life today at the Lake, only a few mallards and some gulls. I was very frustrated with my camera - there was little contrast, and the focusing system refused to lock 90% of the time on moving targets. It was a tough task I was asking the camera to do actually as the gulls were almost the same colour and tone as the sky. I usually use gulls as target practice for birds in flight. I had a sum total of one keeper, and as you can see, it was not that good.

My one and only "keeper" while photographing gulls.

Finally, on the way home (finally, and naturally) the sun poked out. At the same time, I linked up with my neighbour who was walking his dog.

Here he is.

Nose to nose with a much larger dog

Meet the four legged fury.