I've been legally Lightroomed!

A friend "passed" me his copy of Lightroom 2, when he got his Lightroom 3, fairly recently, which I've used a lot, and learned to love it! I've mentioned it previously, but this is a longer post.

Here's why I love Lightroom:
1. I have my entire library of photos organized and cataloged.
a.All my pictures are filed according to Country/City/Year/Dates.

b.Most of my pictures have been tagged with keywords, can't say it has been diligently done 100%, but in theory, I could find a picture via keywords, like google search.

c.You can also tag it 3 different ways - color code, # of stars, but I use the simplest, which is to flag it. See more on workflow below.

2.Makes using RAW files a breeze.
a. The problem I had previously with other free RAW processors, is that the JPEGs were always nicer, and better processed. But with Lightroom, processing is decidedly superior, easy to use, and almost anything you need to do, can be done with it - all in 1 software. No more having to switch to different free photo apps to do different things. Lightroom makes handling of files, so easy, except you can't add borders, and do major tweaking (adding or removing elements to the photos), which I don't.

a.With Lighroom, using RAW files, is as easy as JPEG, and still retains all the info (you lose bits when you shoot JPEG). Think Film versus Printed Picture. And you don't need to bother with White Balance - just put on Auto, and you can always tweak it if necessary. I've set LR to automatically convert the Nikon RAW files (NEF) to Adobe's Digital Negative format (DNG), so u just pulls the files, converts, and sorts it into the filing system per 1a above. The advantage of DNG is that the metadata (stuff like keywords) become part of the file, instead of LR having to create a different file for NEF.


3. Simplifies Workflow
a.So after I import in the photos, I do a quick vet, deleting the bad shots, or shots I'd never use. This removes easily... 50% of the shots or more.

b.I go through it again, flagging those I want to post online, and seeing if any of those I want to do some touch ups (whether convert to B&W, boost contrasts etc). I also add in Keywords, if I remember or can be bothered to. *I should be more disciplined..... but.....*

c.With a keyboard shortcut, I export all to a temp folder (same folder I sync my ipad photos with, so that a copy is also available there), then upload. Pretty easy.

4.Love the processing
I just love the B&W processing, boosting the colors of the picture, and I'm still learning. All of my pictures have been processed (some less, some more) through Lightroom. Here's a few examples:

Just take note that, the most important ingredient of a good picture is, composition. This is something you cannot lightroom your way out of. Lightroom is only a tool, to enhance a picture - but you still need to get the basics right, composition, aperture/shutter speed, exposure. 

Lightroom 4.
So lightroom 4 was recently launched. The advantages I see over LR 2 are
a. Controls have been simplified. It is marginally easier to use, and theoretically more powerful too! I'll find out more when I use it more.

b. Can import videos as well (LR2 couldn't, and I would accidentally delete the videos, if I forgotten to use explorer to cut and paste into where I want it.). Just saves a step, but a rather important one.

c. Photobooks - it's there. Havn't used it. But I could, if I wanted too!

d. The Price. LR2 and LR3 used to cost US$299, and Adobe has cut the price 50%.
So I finally decided that, since I love Lightroom so much, I should properly own my own copy.
Walking by so many "software" shops here in Jakarta, I confess I felt tempted to pay Rp50,000 or S$7 for a copy! But in the end, I decided to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's", found a copy online and purchased it for abt Rp1.5mn or S$210.

I'm a happy camper! And I encourage anyone, more serious about getting the best pictures out there, to get one (legally) too!

Keep Shooting :)

On Pixoto

I love Pixoto -it is "an online community where photographers compete to have the best images in their category."

It's a place where you can upload pictures, and within minutes/hours - get some sort of feedback from other photographers how "good" an image is. Mainly used by photographers (I think), some bad, some good, even some are pros!

This is how it works.

1.You sign up for an account

2.Upload a picture, pick which category it is in, your picture gets challenged by those within the same category, like landscape, travel, fine-art, sports etc (not sub-category, like which sports category it is in).

3.Irrespective of whether you upload or not, you get to vote on "Image Duel", where you pick which of 2 pictures you like better. Loads of other people do this (see #4 on why), and your picture quickly gets a score, to be fine tuned in the next days/weeks to come. Typically, it's pretty hard to get 600 and above. The highest score I see is maybe 750ish or so. Anything below 400, will typically fail to proceed - unless you keep paying for it to be challenged. 

Note: scoring really depends on those who are online at that moment voting. Sometimes, I get a picture stuck at 100 or 200+. I wait till next day, or a few hours later, and try to buy more challenges, it gets better. Sometimes I try a different category, and works. Often, a bad image stops no matter how many challenges you buy or resubmit.



4.How it works is, you need credits to upload (10), and if a picture fails to proceed to more duels (typically when you lose 50% of the duels) - u need five to get it to be challenged 3 more times. So people will vote to earn credits. So the system automatically pits a new picture with say an existing picture with a score of 100. If you win, they will pick a better picture of say 200, so the picture very quickly finds its place amongst its peers. You can read more on the technical bits on scoring, how they treat people abusers etc. But it's a system I think works ok, easy to easy and fun!

5.Awards! You get awards if your picture gets into top 10 of the day (of that category), if there are at least 50 pictures uploaded. Also awards for top 10% of the week, top 20% of the month etc. It's fun, encouraging and ego inflating to win awards! Yes, I've link my Awards page, just to give an idea.

What's good?

- Easy to use
- Quick feedback on how good a picture is - from other photographers. Every picture gets voted on, so theoretically a chance to get good points.
- Fun to get Awards! Great incentive to go on shooting better pictures.
- Great place to get ideas, look at why you like certain pictures (by others), and why not others, and so far fairly inspiring (for me)!

What's not so good? 

- Don't get caught up too much on this. Don't shoot to win credits or awards, they are after all decided by others. It's a fun start, and something to do that doesn't cost a cent! But don't let others dictate your own style, and don't just copy others. Eventually, you'll want to find your own niche, your own style - although I'm not there yet!

Keep shooting!