Morning Walk

[RSL]

Now, now, John, you know I'd never think of moving a camera during an exposure.

Here's another look across the river.

[RSL]

Vacancy

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I don't think your limpkin lives there.

[John R]

Vacancy

Ooh, I like this one. it's the placement of the stump and birdhouse against the dark round shape of the black shadow area that got me.

JR

[RSL]

Thanks, John. I got out even earlier than usual this morning and caught this empty house for rent when the sun first broke through the trees and hit it. I like it even better than the other one. There are several birdhouses on the other side of the river, not far from our house, but I've never seen a bird near any of them. You're right, Eric. The limpkin never would even try to live there.

[John R]

Thanks, John. I got out even earlier than usual this morning and caught this empty house for rent when the sun first broke through the trees and hit it. I like it even better than the other one. There are several birdhouses on the other side of the river, not far from our house, but I've never seen a bird near any of them. You're right, Eric. The limpkin never would even try to live there.

But Russ, that's because you didn't throw the limpkin a welcoming party. Yes this one is nice too. How do you determine exposure on these with all that black? Did you have to underexpose to retain the black?

JR

[RSL]

Hi John. I never shoot anything but raw. In this case, "raw" is Olympus's .ORF. I'm careful about setting exposure compensation for the conditions I have before me, so I set compensation to barely avoid blowing the highlights. I make the final adjustments in Camera Raw -- almost never have to go on into Photoshop itself. In this case, I boosted the black a bit. You always have to remember that our digital cameras are going to do their best to end up with a picture that averages out to middle gray. You need to get the kind of range between brightest and darkest you're happy with in post-processing.

[John R]

Hi John. I never shoot anything but raw. In this case, "raw" is Olympus's .ORF. I'm careful about setting exposure compensation for the conditions I have before me, so I set compensation to barely avoid blowing the highlights. I make the final adjustments in Camera Raw -- almost never have to go on into Photoshop itself. In this case, I boosted the black a bit. You always have to remember that our digital cameras are going to do their best to end up with a picture that averages out to middle gray. You need to get the kind of range between brightest and darkest you're happy with in post-processing.

Thanks for the explanation. I may not be as old as you, but I am a dinosaur when it comes to digital exposures. I still expose like I am shooting slide film and shoot mostly jpeg. I'm not sure I will ever return to Raw, as I am not a Pro and do fine with jpegs. But I can see that in this high contrast scene, Raw is definitely beneficial.

JR

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Yes, Russ, this one works even better than the previous take.

[RSL]

Hi John, There’s nothing wrong with shooting jpeg except that somebody else is making decisions about what to keep and what to throw away. If the decision’s good then the result will be good. If the decision’s not so good, well. . . My problem is that I want to keep everything the camera’s capable of capturing. There have been times, after Adobe has upgraded Camera Raw or Photoshop, when I’ve been able to go back to a raw file and produce an improved .PSD or .jpeg. You can’t do that once somebody else has decided what to throw away.

Oh, and I’m not a pro. The difference between a pro and an amateur is that the pro does it for money; the amateur does it for love (which is the “ama” in there). I did some pro work for a very short time in the late sixties, though my life didn’t depend on the results. I soon found that I hated having to produce something somebody else wanted rather than something I wanted.

And thanks, Eric. I like this one better too. The time of day had a lot to do with it.

[RSL]

Untitled

[KLaban]

I've never shot a jpeg in my life.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I've never shot a jpeg in my life.

I have, unfortunately. When I got my first digital camera, I didn't know anything about jpeg vs. raw, so I shot several jpegs. I've regretted it ever since.

[RSL]

Light Struck.

I shot plenty of .jpegs with my first digital camera: the Casio QV3000EX. That's all the camera would shoot. This isn't one of them.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

It doesn't look raw to me. I think it's been processed.   

[RSL]

The beauty of an overcast morning: detail.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Very nice.

[RSL]

Sun Spotlight

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Very classy handling of the light.

[RSL]

Thanks, Eric. but it was just there. All I did was raise the camera, frame, and push the button. The beauty of my llittle river at first light is enough to knock me down sometimes.