A fond memory

[John Z Goriup]

I has occurred to me that we're rapidly approaching the third anniversary of Rennsport III, which took place on the first weekend of Nov. '07. If things had played out as I think we all fervently hoped for, we'd all be packing & getting ready for RR IV in the next few weeks........Alas.

What a great trip, what wonderful three days, and a really fullfilling experience that was.


I had been struggling with a four year old DELL which finally expired the other day, so I treated myself to a new 27" iMac. Wow, what a machine !! The Apple's screen is capable of so much more resolution and the color fidelity is so much more accurate and brilliant than any other monitor I looked at, that for a moment I honestly thought that I had never seen either photo before, the improvement is that dramatic. It's as if I had purchased a whole new collection of photos. I'm going over all the car shots I've taken and stored on my hard-drives over time and am rediscovering all kinds of treasure I didn't realize was captured in the images all along. To celebrate the memory of the event I dug through my RR III files and found a couple of shots I took during the presentation of all the invited drivers for the filming of the Speed Channel one-hour TV special that was shown later in '07.

Let's see if anyone can identify every one of the people in the two photographs. Even though I was using a flash with the camera on a monopod, Hurley Heywood moved his head just as i took the shot. He's the guy in the white shirt and khakis, fourth from the left of the first photo. The rest you'll have to guess yourselves.

JZG

[a911s]

John, congrats on your new Mac. I love all of mine. I can't identify every face, but I do see your use of "shadow/highlight" in Photoshop. Since you are revisiting your old photos, back off the S/H just a bit, then add some selective black, or contrast, or exposure, then reset your black and white point in levels. You should see a more realistic appearance to your images.

[John Z Goriup]

Randy,

very astutely observed. I actually use Lightroom (version 2.3), but have started to think of switching to Apple's Aperture III, on the assumption that an Apple application will be more user-friendly and integrated with the iMac operating system than an Adobe program. After 25 years of using Windows based computers mainly in business, it's enough of an uphill battle just to learn to use a Mac, and Photoshop just seems overwhelming to me.

You've readily identified one of the main problems with a lot of my photos. I take great pains that my images contain all the information available / possible, thus requiring only minor p.p. tweaking, if any ( I review every shot immediately after snapping it & carefully examine the histogram and will take the shot as many times as necessary to achieve an "acceptable" histogram)......and that is precisely where I get into trouble, when I attempt to eliminate the "Blinkies", (the featureless, white-hot bright spots), while still trying to hold details and opening up the dark shadow areas, in other words, give the photos the appearance of wider dynamic range than the camera is capable of.

Thanks for the tip....... I have so very much to learn.

JZG

[expk2wn]

John & Randy
I switched to Apple after years of watching my son Ryan who has the 30" Imac.
He has a Mac Mini set up as a server that contains his vast movie library.
I love the way my MacBook syncs with my iphone4.

Mike

[a911s]

John, I wouldn't recommend buying Apple's Aperture. I have both and Adobe Lightroom is a superior product IMO. Just upgrade your 2.3 to 2.5 - works great with the Canon 5D Mk II.

Your use of the histogram is correct - don't change your way of working. Just go easy on the "recovery" and "fill light" slider setting in Lightroom, a little bit is all you will ever need if you have the correct exposure.

[johndglynn]

JZG, I use Aperture and the same technique Randy mentions in adding contrast to get some drama into the colours, then lightening on the darker pics. Works a treat.

I tried Lightroom and Aperture on demo before I bought Aperture 2 and then the Aperture 3 upgrade. I prefer the way Aperture works, but it's a close-run thing.

Maybe download the Aperture demo and give it a try, you get 30 days to play. I think you will know pretty quickly which one you prefer the hang of.

Don't forget to try other adjustments too - don't get stuck into one process for everything. Keep playing and pushing into new things.

[John Z Goriup]

Randy & John G.,

thanks for the advice and for taking the time.

Interesting that you mention upgrading to LR 2.5......because just a couple of days after I hooked up the new iMac, an Adobe pop-up appeared on my screen, offering a free LR 2.7 upgrade waiting to be uploaded. Haven't done anything yet, but I'll check out the differences between LR 2.3. 2.5 & 2.7. In the meantime I plan on spending time practicing on just the kind of tricky exposures that have I have always found troublesome and implementing your techniques. That is so much easier to accomplish now with a bright, high-resolution, accurately calibrated screen.

It's gratifying to discover that the generosity in sharing 911 expertise that members of this board are famous for, extends to other fascinating areas as well. Thank you both.

JZG

[johndglynn]

It's gratifying to discover that the generosity in sharing 911 expertise that members of this board are famous for, extends to other fascinating areas as well. Thank you both.

I'm just echoing the professional! Good to know I am not that far off base either