Some days...

[alv]

some days the hole is deep and dark, than you get that day when you peek over tehe edge and it lightens up .be it a smile.alittle bird shot that turn out. al

 

[Derrel]

Great post, Jim. I see one area that is a bit troubling was the workflow process.You wrote, "I spent an hour weeding out the terrible. More than half were deleted, but there looked to be a number of decent shots left. I bracketed that day, so there was 3 for every scene, which means less than 50 actual pictures were left. I saved that for the next day. Monday (it still feels like Monday because I haven't been to bed yet) I took one more look at my images with ACDSee to delete the obvious bad ones before importing into Lightroom. There a bunch more got deleted, but once in a while I would see one I just wanted to start developing right away. The first one I was about 20 minutes into before I realized it should have been deleted. Then I found another that I tried and failed to develop anything exciting with. Then another. As I continued to look and compare my shots, I felt more and more discouraged."

Okay...I'm not sure if ACDSee is the best application for reviewing RAW images...depending on how the camera is set up, and what the As Shot parameters were in the camera, it seems like what you would see in ACDSee would be pretty non-representative of what the images would look like after adjustments were made in Lightroom, stuff like a global LR sharpening applied to everything, and maybe some lens profiles/vignetting removal, and so on...

I guess what I am saying is you're using ACDSee as a pre-editing step, and eliminating images based on what they look like in a close-to-raw state... that doesn't seem fair to the pictures!

And also, editing immediately after a big shoot...that's usually not a good idea. Editing immediately after shooting makes you view the photos through the mental remembering of the scene, not a well-rested, dispassionate, cool frame of mind...and also most likely, not an inspired, creative, contemplative mind. I really think the best editing comes from bringing the whole take into Lightroom, making a FEW global-scale adjustments, and then creating a down-sized batch of JPEG images that will scale perfectly on your computer (this eliminates weird software down-rezzing artifacts, which is a big issue with a huge-file-shooter like a D800), and then , only then, going through the images and in a slide-show type piece of software, deciding on A)a few images that really stand out (from a crappy shoot) or B) which images are second raters and need to be kill-filed (from a good shoot).

The problem I have experienced is that when I am having a great time, a wonderful experience outdoors, that feeling, those feelings, are fresh in my mind that night or the next day, and so when I immediately look at the take, my feelings are often at odds with the photographic realities...the pictures do not match the feelings perfectly, and so, you start dejectedly kill-filing basically, SOOC shots in a slide-show app...before really letting the memories subside, and before doing a preliminary adjustment of the raw files...

Not saying this is the only way to edit images, but it has worked for me...

 

[sm4him]

I agree with others, not only was that an inspiring post, you (and others, like Buckster) are quite inspiring. Many people find every excuse in the world why they CAN'T. I have a cousin, and a good friend, like this. The cousin has Lupus and some other stuff going on, the friend has a rare blood disorder. Both are extremely difficult health situations--but they use them like a sledgehammer, to knock everyone over with all the things they "CAN'T" do BECAUSE they have this disease. They want everyone to know how horribly limited they are.

Because of my cousin, I determined long ago, that I would NOT moan and complain about my limitations (well, there may be a few people that I *do* vent to, lol) but instead would just try to do the best I can with whatever health I have and live as fully as possible. For now, I have no major health issues (other than my eyesight), but for years I had pretty constant, debilitating vertigo and nausea. I explained it as "being car sick 24/7." Some days I just couldn't get out of bed, some days my major goal was to get through day so I could crawl BACK into bed, and other days…other days, rare days, I felt pretty decent. On those days, I always wanted to "make the most" of it.
If I went out to do photography, I needed to make it the most worthwhile photography trip possible--and I was often disappointed with the results, because I put so much pressure on that one "good" day to produce something worthwhile.

I finally realized that putting that kind of pressure on myself to use those "good" days to their fullest was destroying my ENJOYMENT of them.

These days, while I do often have some mild vertigo and nausea, it doesn't often flare up into anything worse--and I can't say that I don't still sometimes succumb to that "this is your ONE good day; make the most of it" mentality. Just a couple of weeks ago, we finally had a pretty, and warm, Saturday--first chance to go do some bird photography in a long time. I put too much pressure to make the "right" choices--couldn't even decide WHERE to go--what's going to give me the best result??--and ended up getting almost nothing worthwhile at all. But then I had to step back and remember--you're out here, it's warm, it's sunny, it's beautiful, and you are healthy enough to be here enjoying it. Let that be enough.

I hope you have a whole big load of "GOOD days" in the near future--and I hope that you get some of those shots you see in your head, the ones that make the pursuit of photography worthwhile--but even if you don't, just know that the fact that you continue to press on is inspiring to others, and is every bit as beautiful a contribution to this world as any photo could possibly be.

 

[sm4him]

Great post, Jim. I see one area that is a bit troubling was the workflow process.You wrote, "I spent an hour weeding out the terrible. More than half were deleted, but there looked to be a number of decent shots left. I bracketed that day, so there was 3 for every scene, which means less than 50 actual pictures were left. I saved that for the next day. Monday (it still feels like Monday because I haven't been to bed yet) I took one more look at my images with ACDSee to delete the obvious bad ones before importing into Lightroom. There a bunch more got deleted, but once in a while I would see one I just wanted to start developing right away. The first one I was about 20 minutes into before I realized it should have been deleted. Then I found another that I tried and failed to develop anything exciting with. Then another. As I continued to look and compare my shots, I felt more and more discouraged."

Okay...I'm not sure if ACDSee is the best application for reviewing RAW images...depending on how the camera is set up, and what the As Shot parameters were in the camera, it seems like what you would see in ACDSee would be pretty non-representative of what the images would look like after adjustments were made in Lightroom, stuff like a global LR sharpening applied to everything, and maybe some lens profiles/vignetting removal, and so on...

I guess what I am saying is you're using ACDSee as a pre-editing step, and eliminating images based on what they look like in a close-to-raw state... that doesn't seem fair to the pictures!

And also, editing immediately after a big shoot...that's usually not a good idea. Editing immediately after shooting makes you view the photos through the mental remembering of the scene, not a well-rested, dispassionate, cool frame of mind...and also most likely, not an inspired, creative, contemplative mind. I really think the best editing comes from bringing the whole take into Lightroom, making a FEW global-scale adjustments, and then creating a down-sized batch of JPEG images that will scale perfectly on your computer (this eliminates weird software down-rezzing artifacts, which is a big issue with a huge-file-shooter like a D800), and then , only then, going through the images and in a slide-show type piece of software, deciding on A)a few images that really stand out (from a crappy shoot) or B) which images are second raters and need to be kill-filed (from a good shoot).

The problem I have experienced is that when I am having a great time, a wonderful experience outdoors, that feeling, those feelings, are fresh in my mind that night or the next day, and so when I immediately look at the take, my feelings are often at odds with the photographic realities...the pictures do not match the feelings perfectly, and so, you start dejectedly kill-filing basically, SOOC shots in a slide-show app...before really letting the memories subside, and before doing a preliminary adjustment of the raw files...

Not saying this is the only way to edit images, but it has worked for me...

Stupid question, but--WHAT is ACDSee?

 

[pixmedic]

Great post, Jim. I see one area that is a bit troubling was the workflow process.You wrote, "I spent an hour weeding out the terrible. More than half were deleted, but there looked to be a number of decent shots left. I bracketed that day, so there was 3 for every scene, which means less than 50 actual pictures were left. I saved that for the next day. Monday (it still feels like Monday because I haven't been to bed yet) I took one more look at my images with ACDSee to delete the obvious bad ones before importing into Lightroom. There a bunch more got deleted, but once in a while I would see one I just wanted to start developing right away. The first one I was about 20 minutes into before I realized it should have been deleted. Then I found another that I tried and failed to develop anything exciting with. Then another. As I continued to look and compare my shots, I felt more and more discouraged."

Okay...I'm not sure if ACDSee is the best application for reviewing RAW images...depending on how the camera is set up, and what the As Shot parameters were in the camera, it seems like what you would see in ACDSee would be pretty non-representative of what the images would look like after adjustments were made in Lightroom, stuff like a global LR sharpening applied to everything, and maybe some lens profiles/vignetting removal, and so on...

I guess what I am saying is you're using ACDSee as a pre-editing step, and eliminating images based on what they look like in a close-to-raw state... that doesn't seem fair to the pictures!

And also, editing immediately after a big shoot...that's usually not a good idea. Editing immediately after shooting makes you view the photos through the mental remembering of the scene, not a well-rested, dispassionate, cool frame of mind...and also most likely, not an inspired, creative, contemplative mind. I really think the best editing comes from bringing the whole take into Lightroom, making a FEW global-scale adjustments, and then creating a down-sized batch of JPEG images that will scale perfectly on your computer (this eliminates weird software down-rezzing artifacts, which is a big issue with a huge-file-shooter like a D800), and then , only then, going through the images and in a slide-show type piece of software, deciding on A)a few images that really stand out (from a crappy shoot) or B) which images are second raters and need to be kill-filed (from a good shoot).

The problem I have experienced is that when I am having a great time, a wonderful experience outdoors, that feeling, those feelings, are fresh in my mind that night or the next day, and so when I immediately look at the take, my feelings are often at odds with the photographic realities...the pictures do not match the feelings perfectly, and so, you start dejectedly kill-filing basically, SOOC shots in a slide-show app...before really letting the memories subside, and before doing a preliminary adjustment of the raw files...

Not saying this is the only way to edit images, but it has worked for me...

Stupid question, but--WHAT is ACDSee?

On of the greatest rock bands ever!
Both Bon Scott AND Angus Young totally rocked with that group

 

[JimMcClain]

Stupid question, but--WHAT is ACDSee?

On of the greatest rock bands ever!
Both Bon Scott AND Angus Young totally rocked with that group

Orrr, it's this program I use for image file management (I don't use any of the editing tools): Manage Edit Present Share Photos - ACDSee 18

In my experience (limited as it is), Lightroom isn't a very good file manager. I don't care for Adobe Bridge either. I use ACDSee to do all my initial sorting and eliminations because it's quick and the only importing I have to do is when moving pictures from camera to computer. I don't only deal with photographs though and LR only does photos. It doesn't see many of the thousands of graphics files I have created and used for websites I own or manage. LR can also be a slug, even on a souped up machine like mine.

The pictures I eliminate with ACDSee are the obvious OOF, way over or under exposed and compositions that can't even be saved with serious cropping. I don't eliminate pictures because of white balance or other problems that can be easily fixed in LR or PS.

Thanks again for all the encouraging and uplifting comments, everyone. I have spent much of the morning looking at some of those pictures I shot Sunday and found a few that weren't as bad as I first thought. I even took time to re-edit one I thought I shouldn't have even started and it turned out pretty nice after all. I'll post some of both sessions later, in the appropriate forums.

Jim