Photo of the Day

Chalakudy river

Canon EOS 400D with EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6

Photo of the day

Misty Trees, Bhutan

Photo of the day

Photo of the day

Thorny Thoughts

Photo of the day

Isolation

Photo of the day

Lightroom 3 and Windows Live Writer

Thanks to Jayaram and Jagan, I have now added Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.0 as a part of my digital workflow. I went back and picked up one of my older photographs taken during a trip to the Nehru Zoo (see earlier post) in Hyderabad and processed it in Lightroom to see what I can make of it. This is the first time I’m using Lightroom although I did download the Beta long back. All the photos that I have posted to my blog previously were processed in Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software for EOS users, it was free and Canon did a great job of adding essential features over a period of time.

The picture was originally imported from the camera using Canon EOS Utility (from now on I will probably switch to using LR3 directly), processed in Lightroom and then the border/frame/copyright added using FastStone Image Viewer. Although LR3 added copyright embedding feature, it does not allow me to create frames like these for embedding copyrights. LR/Mogrify 2 is an option, but I will stick to LR3 + FastStone for now.

It has been less than 12 hours since I installed Lightroom, so I have not had a chance to really explore all the capabilities – I’m sure that’s going to take me many months if at all I even manage to do it. The overall experience has been great so far with most of the usage being very intuitive and fitting in well with the existing Canon software based workflow that I had. But I do really wish Adobe supported HDR in some form in Lightroom itself rather than including that only in the (much) more expensive Photoshop. I’m sure HDR is going to become really mainstream, especially with many cameras building that capability in the camera itself and optimizing at the sensor level.

This is also a test post for me to work out the settings in Windows Live Writer (I’m using the latest Beta) to get the look that I want for my posts. The picture upload option in Blogger is a pain and one has to upload 5 photos at a time and they all go to the top of the page while editing after which I have to cut and paste and rearrange them. Windows Live Writer on the other hand allows one to type and insert pictures with absolute freedom. And it’s free! You can download it from here along with some other great Microsoft tools including a fully featured anti-virus and anti-malware solution (full disclosure – I work for Microsoft).

The only issue that I have found with Live Writer so far is that in the Preview mode it does not show the latest posts, I am not sure if it is by design or due to some compatibility issues with Blogger. This does not seem to impact the publishing of the blog post or the preview of the post I am creating (except for the post date being shown incorrectly), so I am fine with it.

Now the only thing remaining is to get a 23” LCD with a full HD resolution! Dell 2309W looks like a good option with a higher than HD resolution, height adjustment, 2 MP webcam, main negative being that it uses TN instead of an IPS LCD panel and the price. Availability and price seems to be an issue for any LCD above 21.5” in India.

Photo of the Day

Akshita in a pensive mood on her third birthday

Photo of the Day

The Birds

Was looking at the cloud covered peaks when the birds flew out of nowhere, had just enough time to raise the camera and fire off one quick shot. Reminds me of the Hitchcock movie.

Canon EOS 400D, exposure of 1/125s @ F8, ISO 400. Shot in Bhutan.

Photo of the Day

Fallen leaf

Photographed while trekking in Bhutan. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85 mm lens at 85 mm. Exposure of 1/30s @ F/5.6, ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Setting Sun

Canon EOS 400D with Tamron 28-200mm XR lens at 200mm. Exposure of 1/4000s at F/5.6, ISO 400. A lower ISO like 100 would have sufficed in this case and resulted in better IQ, but I've gotten into the (bad) habit of shooting at ISO 400 by default as the noise is quite well controlled.

Photo of the Day

Waterfall

Cascading mountain stream shot in Bhutan. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens at 24mm. Slow shutter of 1/5s chosen to give a "smooth" effect to water while shooting hand held (was not carrying a tripod). Exposure of 1/5s @ F/18, ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Foliage

Shot during a trek in Bhutan. Canon EOS 400D with Tamron 28-200 XR Lens. Shot at 200mm with ISO 400 and exposure of 1/250s @ F/6.3.

Photo of the Day

Sunset in Bhutan

A cloud lit by the setting sun. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens at 85mm exposed for 1/320s @ F/10.

Photo of the Day

Another one from the series that I shot from my apartment during a particularly brilliant sunset. Canon EOS 400D with EF 70-200mm F4 L IS USM Lens. I need a better JPEG converter as the PNG version of the same picture shows.

PNG version of the same picture from the original 10MP Canon EOS 400D RAW image.

Photo of the Day

Hyderabad Blues

Silhouette against evening sky in Hyderabad. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM Lens. Quite a few JPEG/conversion artifacts, unfortunately.

Photo of the Day

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM at 85mm. Exposure of 1/60s @ F5.6, ISO 400.

Happy New Year!

Murals on Wall

Shot in Tende, France with Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM.

Photo of the Day

Sunset at Shanghumugham beach, Kerala

Photo of the Day

Returning fishermen in Kumarakom