My Recent Pics
- Thread starter ssick92
- Start date
ssick92
New member
Sure I can. Most of my LR workflow is based off of Jared Platt's Ultimate Lightroom Workflow. I think it is like a $100 seminar or something if you actually purchased it but I just watched a couple of the videos on YouTube and got the gist of it and started changing it up to fit my needs. I have no idea on your level of LR knowledge so I'll break it down to some pretty basic terms.
I'll try to sum it up pretty succinctly but it's pretty specific so I'll probably ramble:
First, I always start by using Windows Explorer to transfer over the pictures from my SD card to the computer; it is much faster and takes less memory than if you were to import through the LR import module. This means all the photos, even the crappy ones. It is much easier to tell a good photo on a large computer screen than a small 3" LCD screen on the camera. Every time you import from your SD card, make a new folder and import them there. I usually use a date code and a keyword (20130324_Acans).
Now you have to get them into LR. Simply go to the left side of your screen, and click the + next to the Folders dropdown. Click Add Folder and then select your 20130324_Acans folder. I usually render 1:1 previews for all my photos when I import, but it is probably unnecessary.
Once they are all imported and the previews are rendered, I go to Survey mode by pressing the N button. This is where you decide what pictures you like and want to keep. One of Jared's main points here was that it is much better to Pick (by pressing the P button) the photos that you like, rather than Rejecting (Don't know the button because I dont use it) the bad photos. It simply makes you feel better about yourself because rather than thinking how crappy your photos are and Rejecting them, you will be thinking how wonderful and awesome they are and saying, "I gotta keep this one!" Anyway, just go through and find all the pictures you like and select them all with P.
Next, if I am working with a large import of say 100+ photos, I will go to the Library module and filter it so that I only see the photos that I flagged in Survey mode. Select all those photos, and then right click on the folder where your picture is and click "Create folder inside '20130324_Acans'". I always name this folder Selections.
Now that you have separated all photos that you like, just click on your new "Selections" folder to leave all your garbage photos behind and not worry about them again. Now it's time to go to the Develop module. I start by making universal changes to as many photos as I can. Since 90% of my pictures of my aquarium have a lot of blue in them, I can change the color balance of all of them at once. This is done by Auto-Syncing and having all the photos I want to edit selected at once. To enable Auto-Sync, select more than 1 photo and go to the bottom right hand corner of the Develop Module; the left button will either say Sync or Auto-Sync. If it says Sync, then click the little switch on the left. It should now say Auto-Sync. I make changes to large groups at a time, and trickle my way down until I might need to tweak some levels for each individual photo.
When I am done editing, I rate the pictures that I like the best. Some of the photos that I just edited won't make the cut, so I don't rate them. Go back to the Library and now filter so that you only see photos that you rated 1 star or more. Select all your favorites and right click on the folder as before, and click "Create Folder Inside '20130324_Acans'" and I name it Favorites.
Export to where you want your final edited photos, and then post em up here on RC for all to see
Oh, and 1 more piece of advice. PRESETS, PRESETS, PRESETS. At this point, I have a basically preset set up for each lighting condition, and can edit 500+ photos within 5 minutes. If you find yourself doing the same thing over and over again for more than 1 photo, there is probably a way to set a preset and only do it once.
Again, sorry if this was way more than you wanted but I am a huge LR fan and have worked on my streamlining my workflow pretty extensively, so I wanted to share.
ssick92
New member
I don't usually crop out too much, but I do sometimes. For me, luckily my tank is super narrow, only 12" deep, so most of my corals are within a few inches from the front glass. This enables me to get as close as possible without cropping too much.
For the clam and Yellow Watchman Goby, they were literally millimeters from the glass so I could squeeze in tight and required no cropping at all.
ssick92
New member
It's been a while since I posted any new photos so I decided to get a few new ones.
Firefish by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
My Rainbow Acan has some new polyps and they are starting to color up nicely:
Rainbow Acan by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
My Candy Cane has been splitting recently and I have been trying to get pictures of the entire process, here's the most recent:
Candy Cane 1 by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
Firefish by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
My Rainbow Acan has some new polyps and they are starting to color up nicely:
Rainbow Acan by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
My Candy Cane has been splitting recently and I have been trying to get pictures of the entire process, here's the most recent:
Candy Cane 1 by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
Good to know if I put a 100mm f/2.8 L on my t3i & get good photo software & stack I may be able to make images this good!
Love the new pics.
Love the new pics.
frankyrivera
FUP&A Member
With that 100mm macro you'll get good results without stacking or software lol it's a good lens
ssick92
New member
Seriously... With that L lens you will be able to get amazing photos with minimal editing. If you use that lens and stack, you'll find absolutely incredible results.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta
frankyrivera
FUP&A Member
Ssick92 I thought a similar pic of my fish too lol
ssick92
New member
Ssick92 I thought a similar pic of my fish too lol
Damn, I want a Helfrichi but my wallet can't support it, and I actually really like the Purple Firefish as well.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
ssick92
New member
Well, I realized I haven't ever posted a full FTS, so I took the camera out just to give everyone an update. Here's a little background, I am a college student at Cal Poly SLO so I don't have a lot of options on where to put my tank. I ended up putting it in my closet, which doesn't have any doors. Next year I will have an apartment where I won't have to keep it in my closet, and hopefully everything makes the move successfully.
Also, I just had an unexpected alk swing where it went from 9.5 up to about 12 and it killed my clam that was struggling through PMD. I want to pick up a Ultra Maxima possibly if I can get a good deal on one. I also am in the market for a bright colorful blenny, preferably Stigmata Blenny, but I can't find one around here.
30g Long FTS by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
30g Long FTS Close by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
Also, I just had an unexpected alk swing where it went from 9.5 up to about 12 and it killed my clam that was struggling through PMD. I want to pick up a Ultra Maxima possibly if I can get a good deal on one. I also am in the market for a bright colorful blenny, preferably Stigmata Blenny, but I can't find one around here.
30g Long FTS by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
30g Long FTS Close by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
frankyrivera
FUP&A Member
That's a sick colony of sunny d's there. Is that's red chalice on the bottom left
ssick92
New member
Ya it is a Red Montipora, I don't know if it has a "street name". When I get a chance I'll take a close up of it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
ssick92
New member
Here is the photo I put together of this Montipora. I actually stacked 83 images to get this one, it was probably a huge amount of overkill, but I wanted to use Magic Lantern (custom camera firmware) to take the pictures.
Red Montipora by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
frankyrivera
FUP&A Member
Here is the photo I put together of this Montipora. I actually stacked 83 images to get this one, it was probably a huge amount of overkill, but I wanted to use Magic Lantern (custom camera firmware) to take the pictures.
Red Montipora by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
Ok first off that pic is insane. Second what is stacking and what does it do what's the difference between 20 stacks 80 or 100. Does it improve sharpen or contrast.
ssick92
New member
Stacking is a process where I combine, in this case 83, images. Each one is at a different focus point, so you can get the whole image in focus. Instead of making my aperture smaller to f/11 or so and losing a tiny amount of detail, I keep the aperture at f/2.8 which gives me the smallest DOF and I just combined a bunch of them in Photoshop.
To be more specific, this process is called Focus Stacking. There are other reasons to stack, but this is just one of them. Hope that made sense! If not I'll try to explain differently.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta
To be more specific, this process is called Focus Stacking. There are other reasons to stack, but this is just one of them. Hope that made sense! If not I'll try to explain differently.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4 Beta
frankyrivera
FUP&A Member
Wow sounds like a lot of work why not just increase the aperture lol f16 and save the steps
ssick92
New member
It really isn't a whole lot of work, the programs nowadays do it all for us, it just takes a few clicks. Here is the same photo (or as close as I could come) at f/16 and with a stack. As you can see, the f/16 just doesn't have nearly as much detail or pop:
Stack:
Red Montipora by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
1 image at f/16:
Monti f/16 by JHelmuthPhoto, on Flickr
Sure. Usually when I stack images, I use about 20 images and I manually find each focus point so that I have a fully focused image. This time around I used a "program" called Magic Lantern. This is basically just another software that is on my camera and it allows features such as focus stacking (AKA focus bracketing), HDR bracketing, timelapses, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't use.
In order to make this image, I put my aperture at f/2.8, ISO at 400, and SS at 1/81. I went to the focus bracketing and set it to take a picture at the closest possible point where the coral is in focus, then focus about 1/32nd of an inch further away and take another picture, and so on and so forth until the last possible point that I want in the picture is in focus. In this case, it took 83 photos to get enough pictures to put the whole thing in focus. All I had to do is click the shutter button once and it took all 83 photos for me, while auto focusing at each focus point in the image.
I then took these images into LR where I edited all of the photos at once (via Auto-Sync) to match what I see with my eye. I then export all 83 edited images and open them up in Photoshop. Merge all the files into one file via the Photomerge feature, and then Auto-Blend the layers. It will spit out a final photo where it took all the parts of each photo that were in focus, and merged them into 1 photo.
Voila!
Similar threads
