I get asked a lot to share more about the technical side of some photos, so here we go, Technical Friday. Now and then I will pull back the curtain on some dailypics – feel free to ask anytime if you like, I have no problem sharing. So, this one I am sharing how it looked before I put it in Lightroom – see below. Photographers use the term Straight Out of Camera or SOC. How the photo looks the second it is captured. Many cameras enhance the image, so it looks good on the screen, then you are disappointed when you upload it. Digital files are meant to be edited, just as film was meant to be developed. That is how I use Adobe Lightroom, I make adjustments, just as I did when I developed film. I can see what I want it to look like in my head when I take it, knowing what I do with editing tools. I do not use Photoshop, way to complicated for me and I am not patient enough. I try to get the photo as I want it when I shoot. The crop I want, in this case fill the frame, the depth of field I want, in this case f4.0 to have a shallow feel, and the light, natural light in a shadow. All of that was done in camera. Now in Lightroom I added a preset I add to all my photos, a recipe that I have worked on for years, I feel it give my photos a consistent look. I want a viewer to see one of my photos and think  it is mine without a watermark. Tweaks to the amount of blacks, clarity, contrast and whites. Next to each other, I am sure it looks like it took a while to get the final result, but to be honest this edit took less than a minute and maybe 4 clicks of the mouse. Feel free to offer suggestions for future Technical Friday posts.

Camera: Nikon D4, Lens: Nikon 105mm Macro, 1/400, f4, ISO800

If you are in the Medway area tomorrow (Saturday June 6, 2015) I will be opening the studio and gallery from 10-3. Stop by, photos for sale and I will be taking one-bulb portraits.

tr/trp