It Was a Cold and Frosty Night (and Day and Night)
School districts have closed schools, weather forecasters and news reporters are telling us not to go out because of frigid temperatures and wind chill (which I experienced because when you need a haircut, a little weather cannot get in the way), and most of my day was consumed with dealing with fire-related activity as we begin to sort through what can be delivered to our temporary dwelling, what is a total loss, and what needs to be put into long term storage til we are back home. So instead of focusing on new things on Lightroom5, I just practiced things I've already done successfully -- imported from a card, labeled with key words, processed in Develop within LR and then exported and imported back from Color Efex. While in Color Efex, got a bit carried away. This started as frost shaped like snowflakes on our window, with city lights behind it.
Check out P3's latest adventure if interested, over on the Toys365 album: http://365project.org/365toygroup/365/2015-01-08 .
Thank you for continuing to engage with me as I work through Lightroom and focus mostly on that. Stay warm, my winter friends; enjoy the warmth, my southern hemisphere friends!
I enjoy the results of your processing Taffy although it is double dutch to me, my project is SOOC mostly . I sit here in my shorts and singlet on a very warm Queensland day. Cannot imagine how cold you must be. Love this image BTW. :))
Just love this! And you know it's cold when it even snows in Florida! I didn't get to witness it, but Jacksonville had snow sightings all over this afternoon. Cold day in this world when we see snow....so stay warm up there where it truly snows!
I hear it is very very cold there at the moment. I am impressed that you braved the cold for the haircut. If you are stuck inside you might as well look good doing it.
@darylo Still on chapter 1. The whole importing and organizing stuff is fascinating to me and something I need to understand much more clearly. And I've got all these hard drives so I'm trying to figure out which aperture files to bring onto my new current hard drive before I start cluttering it up. The fact that LR brings in the photos is fantastic, but it takes a while. Right now I'm sort of focused on trips -- the Chile one, Japan, France -- ones that I wanted to create a book and haven't yet done so. Today I was sidetracked trying to find photos of our Kachina dolls prior to the fire. Four (we have/had 6) have been wrecked by the way they stored them, as at least one photo after the fire shows the feathers were just fine. Now, they have broken arms, missing feathers, smashed feathers -- and they aren't replaceable as they are one of a kind, and one was almost 100 years old. I'm just sick about it! I know they are just things, but an artist worked so hard to create these and they were not treated appropriately. AGH!
Anyway, my goal is to spend the next two weeks really learning importing and labeling and getting most important files onto one hard drive. Is that too slow and boring for you?
This is very artistic, in a frozen kind of way. The bokeh came out beautifully huge, so that is lovely. The colors are gorgeous. I am making progress in LR, too... learning how to import, edit, delete and straighten. The organizational piece is going to have to wait, but I have learned how to do some very basic edits in PS and then save back to LR (even though I have to look it up again each time). This is an enjoyable journey... so fun to do it with others. :)
@rosiekerr So you are already using PS? I thought that was harder to learn than LR and more powerful. Just wondering what your thinking is re moving from PS to LR -- isn't the main reason for doing this the organizational system? I'm so new to this, I'm still trying to figure out the relationship between PS and LR (and where my actual photos are located!).
@taffy oh gosh that is horrible. Art is so precious. :( not too slow at all on LR. Slow is actually good for me. Will start in chapter this weekend. I have to figure out how to get exported 2013 catalogue back on main hard drive. So I need to read.
Very cool image! So glad you are learning LR so I can learn from you. What a shock to my body to return to Chicago tonight after changing planes in LAX earlier today, walking outside in only a long sleeved shirt.
@jyokota Thanks! Can you believe how miserable it is here??? I must have almost fallen a dozen times and was only out a very short time! But, welcome home!!
What a fabulous abstract shot, Taffy. I love the colors. I feel for those in freezing cold areas when our low in No Ca is in the 40's and high in the 60's. No rain in our forecast though and so the drought continues. I hope it warms up soon for you there. FAV
Fabulous, cheery abstract Taffy. Brrr, cannot imagine how cold it is with you guys. It has been really hot here this week (35 degrees C) and I'm sure I'm gonna bake in Mozambique next week. So sending you warm thoughts. Enjoy LR.
Loved reading through the thread Taffy. I really have to stop myself doing that as time is increasingly precious. Great shot. I admire the journey you're on. This shot is great.
What fun you are having. Lovely shot. Cold here too. Some schools closed and some with a delayed start yesterday. Temps back in the "normal" range this morning.
I love this abstract effect you've created, it's so effective. And they yellow (which is usually warm) with what is clearly frost (and obviously cold) creates a really interesting effect. It's been so hot here it seems strange that there is somewhere where it's too cold to go outside!
I have used Photoshop for many years (about 25) but I do most edits in Lightroom. I only use PS if I want to make a composite or do some serious cloning and editing, things that can't be done easily in LR. To edit in LR is so fast compared to opening a file in PS and saving each one individually... plus it is non-destructive. But you need to keep backing up your catalogue because if you lose that, you lose all your edits. I was so excited to learn LR, I love it!
Wow Taffy! This is beautiful! Love the heavy processing! I like to hear about your LR exploring. Makes me wonder if I should buy "the book" as well. When I got LR I just watched some YouTube clips and am still just trying. I wonder if I can get more out of it with "the book". Can you tell me which book is "the book"?
@nicoleterheide It's the Lightroom5 book by Scott Kelby. If you google it or go on Amazon, it will be the first one listed. It's about US$40.00. I think people learn in different ways -- I"m also viewing YouTube videos, but I find I need a reference to be able to read and go back to again and again, videos become annoying, to me, under those circumstances. But videos also are helpful, so I wouldn't replace one with the other. It also has shaped up that you can use LR for processing without worrying about using it for your organization, but it is such a powerful organizational program that still (unlike Aperture) stores your original RAW files in a clear folder, that is makes little sense to me to switch to it and NOT use it as my total system for keeping files organizable and searchable.
Very cool. I learned LR this way. I read the book first and then went to the computer and did all the things in the book. When I forget something I grab the book again. This is also how I learned PS. I love Scott Kelby's books.
Wow, what a beauty Taffy, right up my alley. And it's a definite fave for me, of course, I just love well executed processing like this. And this is very effective indeed.
As for LR, I too am struggling to get my head around the storage stuff, and precisely where to find what. I've used PS for ages at a pretty low-level mostly, but for organisation purposes I started in iPhoto then graduated to Aperture where I stayed until Apple abandoned it. I'm finding some very pleasant editing surprises in LR, e.g. a combined crop and straighten image setting where each may be used separately or in sequence. I really like the way I can set up a whole range of (second-string) external editing apps, this alone will save me heaps of time and hassle cf Aperture. I bought Matt Kloskowski's module on Aperture to LR and found it worth the money for my purposes. Each 'chapter' is shorn and sweet, and very clear and easy to dip into. Paired with 'the book' I'm slowly making perceptible progress without undue stress - apart from storage stuff, trying to work out how to get my secondary backup on to an XHD.
@golftragic I've gotten nothing done today because of deliveries from storage and having to sort through things (e.g., rug was stored while still damp -- really bad things happen when they do that!). Tonight is my plan for backing up to the external hard drive. A bit scared to start it all! Glad you liked my super-processing approach here!
Sorry it's so cold out there, and also about all the destruction of some of your cherished possessions. It really sucks..... I hope that at least it feels like you are making some progress, on the home front, and also on Lightroom. I took this class without having worked in it at all, and the instructor focused primarily on the organizational aspect, and I felt pretty lost!! He will be offering it again in the spring, and I am hoping to be a little more prepared for it so that I can get a lot out of it this time. It kind of surprised me....I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but the whole thing just seemed really onerous.
@taffy Thanks for the reply Taffy. I have a photography book of Scott Kelby and love it, so will definatly look into buying the LR book he wrote. I know what you mean with watching videos over and over again, they start to irritate you!
Ok next, week I'm cracking the book. Where are you?
Anyway, my goal is to spend the next two weeks really learning importing and labeling and getting most important files onto one hard drive. Is that too slow and boring for you?
I have used Photoshop for many years (about 25) but I do most edits in Lightroom. I only use PS if I want to make a composite or do some serious cloning and editing, things that can't be done easily in LR. To edit in LR is so fast compared to opening a file in PS and saving each one individually... plus it is non-destructive. But you need to keep backing up your catalogue because if you lose that, you lose all your edits. I was so excited to learn LR, I love it!
As for LR, I too am struggling to get my head around the storage stuff, and precisely where to find what. I've used PS for ages at a pretty low-level mostly, but for organisation purposes I started in iPhoto then graduated to Aperture where I stayed until Apple abandoned it. I'm finding some very pleasant editing surprises in LR, e.g. a combined crop and straighten image setting where each may be used separately or in sequence. I really like the way I can set up a whole range of (second-string) external editing apps, this alone will save me heaps of time and hassle cf Aperture. I bought Matt Kloskowski's module on Aperture to LR and found it worth the money for my purposes. Each 'chapter' is shorn and sweet, and very clear and easy to dip into. Paired with 'the book' I'm slowly making perceptible progress without undue stress - apart from storage stuff, trying to work out how to get my secondary backup on to an XHD.