Wildlife Photography across the Water: Lightroom

Friday, 9 March 2012

Lightroom - A quick play

So in keeping bang up with technology, I bring you the first images on the blog processed in the just superseded Lightroom 3. As regular readers will know we are both fans of Phase One's Capture One RAW processing software.

Well I have generally shied away from Lightroom as a processing tool, and have just generally dabbled with it as a library tool. I did some processing with it in the beta test stages and was quite impressed as it was the first Adobe RAW processor that didn't make Canon 7D files in particular look worse unlike earlier versions of the Adobe RAW processing engine.

So here are a some side by side comparisons of firstly the Capture One RAW conversion with some Photoshop CS5 work to complete the cropping and sharpening functions with the second image processed in Lightroom

Images taken at Gigrin Kite feeding station in Wales in October 2010 with the 7D and 500 f4L

While there are actually very obvious differences in the processing in terms of sky colour, due to operator error on my part, I have say when lookiing at the full size images on my screen, I am very impressed with the Lightroom images.

I will do some more tesing and watch a few YouTube tutorials to improve my skills, but loking good so far.

There is a long way to go before I decide whether I will stick with full Photoshop or not. With upgrades massively cheaper than the full version, (ca.£150 v £600) it will be a brave move to bale out of future upgrades now.

Martin

1 comment:

Clair Matthews11 March 2012 at 16:33
Lightroom is fab!...i'm sure you'll find it much easier to use that PS.. I sure do..

Clair
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.