Greggf wrote:
F1,0...fantastic image.
Samuli...very nice! The 28 Biogon looks really good. You've used it a lot lately. What's your take in the lens with the A7?
Werner...WOW! I swear that tulip is popping out of my screen!! Incredible bokeh!
G
+1
Sony A7 + Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 100mm f/2 by Ronny Olsson, on Flickr
Sony A7 + Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 100mm f/2 by Ronny Olsson, on Flickr
Greggf wrote:
Samuli...you say you ditched LR and sliders...which software are you using now and enjoying so much. You've peaked my interest!
Gregg,
My frustration on photo processing was caused by Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom (Capture One, etc.) kind of tools. They didn't suite my workflow and thinking. Great tools for productivity, but if I want to enjoy the process I need to do something else.
I went to free software what I use for everything else than than photo stuff anyways (everything else runs Linux, I just have Mac for photo processing stuff):
- dcraw for RAW-conversion (command line tool, easy to script and if needed I can make it to distribute the load to multiple servers easily)
- ImageMagick for resizing and whole image edit operations like for example adding local contrast (it's command line tool = only global image modifications)
- ExifTool for EXIF-manipulation (I shoot a lot of lenses, which don't have electronical connection so aperture etc. needs to be added. Also I include information of filters etc. And GPS coordinates need to be added as well. Now Apple Aperture support ended I learned my lesson - never add information to anywhere else than to source (=RAW file EXIF) - I have 2006-2013 photos in Apple Aperture and all shooting notes are in Aperture database (custom fields, don't transfer properly to Lightroom etc.). Also used for inserting ICC-profiles to files.
- Luminance HDR for HDR photos (not 100% sure, PhotoMatix Pro is pretty OK to use in Mac as well)
- dispcalGUI for screen calibration (I use the same hardware as I did with Mac: Datacolor Spyder 3)
However there is no free substiture for 16-bit image manipulation program, so I'll use PhotoShop CS in Mac when needed. GIMP does just 8-bit, and others don't have needed layer features etc. Also most likely I keep doing panoramas with Mac software (Autopano Pro), as most of my panos are shallow DOF and Hugin/PT tools etc. just don't cope with shallow DOF panos very well.
I couldn't find some stuff (e.g. histograms, which would work exactly like I want and execute in multiple threads), so I'll write my own programs for those needs. The whole point for me doing this "move" is that I can modify my workflow to whatever I want it to be.
In any case I don't recommend this solution unless you have strong Unix/Linux background AND understanding of image manipulation on algorithmic level e.g. you don't just throw sliders on USM dialog when you want local contrast but know that you need to use something like "size=about image height/10 and amount=about 15%".
During the time I have had Sony A7&A7r LightRooms only role has been to convert RAWs to TIFFs. All other stuff I have already done with these tools (e.g. EXIF work and resizing TIFFs to JPGs). So this is not gigantic leap.
Already posted one post without photo to image thread, better find some photo to post... Contax G28 @ f/11, A7, B+W Circ-Pol (focus distance about 1.5m - at f/11 no change of using longer focus distance without corner issues)
a7r/FE55. Sometimes it's nice to publish failures and near misses; to the left, just behind the impressively statuesque nomad gent in the foreground is the reason to prefer winter time, at least in the more traditional locations in Lhasa. For so many short stay tourists the ideal street lens is a 70-200mm or even longer. For my shot f2.8 would have been better than f5.6 for this reason here, but I wanted both the main subjects in good enough focus. C'est la vie, you cannot win them all.
