Robert Watcher
Well-known member
This year I have kind of settled on a look that works with the edgier, character filled city that I am living in - - - that being Leon, Nicaragua in Central America. I'm sure that some will dislike the appearance and some have found it appealing to their eyes.
It is simply a choice that I make as a creative photographer. Even if I am shooting noise-free, clean low ISO images - - - in general I do not choose to present them that way. I organize and process my travel and street images, almost exclusively in Adobe Lightroom and seldom open up Photoshop for anything other than compositing.
For video, my software is Final Cut Pro and for panoramics it's Autopano Giga 3. All accomplished on my Basic Apple 1.3 GHz Macbook Air with 4GB of RAM running OS X Version 10.9.2. My cameras are the minuscule Olympus Pen models with kit lenses.
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So I figured that screen captures may be of more use than typing all the steps involved. To start with I will show the final processed image - - - then follow with the process.
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These first 3 screen shots are my normal process for most of my grunged up colour images in Nicaragua. I don't spend a lot of time other than a bit of dodging and burning using the Lightroom tools - - - and then clicking my Basic Nica preset that I have created. Normally these would be the only steps I take and then move on to the next.
This is from the camera with the square crop
I take away and add emphasis on specific areas of the frame using the Adjustment Brush and/or Graduated Filter - - - mostly dropping or raising the exposure on the selected areas
My Basic Nica preset gives me starting levels of adjustment with Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation as well as a Split Tone that adds yellow tonality and then Post Crop Vignetting
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It is simply a choice that I make as a creative photographer. Even if I am shooting noise-free, clean low ISO images - - - in general I do not choose to present them that way. I organize and process my travel and street images, almost exclusively in Adobe Lightroom and seldom open up Photoshop for anything other than compositing.
For video, my software is Final Cut Pro and for panoramics it's Autopano Giga 3. All accomplished on my Basic Apple 1.3 GHz Macbook Air with 4GB of RAM running OS X Version 10.9.2. My cameras are the minuscule Olympus Pen models with kit lenses.
--------
So I figured that screen captures may be of more use than typing all the steps involved. To start with I will show the final processed image - - - then follow with the process.
-------
These first 3 screen shots are my normal process for most of my grunged up colour images in Nicaragua. I don't spend a lot of time other than a bit of dodging and burning using the Lightroom tools - - - and then clicking my Basic Nica preset that I have created. Normally these would be the only steps I take and then move on to the next.
This is from the camera with the square crop
I take away and add emphasis on specific areas of the frame using the Adjustment Brush and/or Graduated Filter - - - mostly dropping or raising the exposure on the selected areas
My Basic Nica preset gives me starting levels of adjustment with Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation as well as a Split Tone that adds yellow tonality and then Post Crop Vignetting
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