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Ahh, new card reader got here today and I was finally able to unload about 2 gigs of RAW files from my card. Not only that, I was able to finally EDIT some RAW files on my computer and get the best results I'm capable of again.
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/20
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 100mm
Tripod
I hadn't realized just how dependent I've grown on using RAW whenever possible. I love it. Anyway, we have a flowering plum tree in my front yard that will probably be cut down this summer, so I wanted some photos. Besides, it looks really good this time of year. Once again I can thank my dad and his macro lens.
Also, I'm pretty proud to say that the thought of cropping this photo didn't even cross my mind during editing. I think I'm finally starting to get better at framing things. The more things I can get right in-camera, the better.
I have fallen in love with another specific form of photography. Monochrome still-lifes. Monochrome in general is so lovely when I have the flexibility of RAW. I've noticed a HUGE difference.
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 0.6 seconds
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 27 mm
Tripod
I'm not extremely happy with the composition on this. Lines, etc. become even more important than usual when you shoot monochrome, because there isn't color to distract your eyes. So in an attempt to mask some of the lines that are leading the eye in stupid directions, and just generally keep the focus on the center, I added a not-so-subtle vignette. It helped, but I still need to figure out better composition when shooting things like this.
I really like the contrast though, and the shadows behind the vases looks pretty good, as well as the kind of flare of light on the wood.
Man, Nature Macro photography is going to be so jealous.
A couple of days ago, I shot this still-life of some chess pieces I made over a year ago. While composing it, I thought it might look good in monochrome, so I went ahead and shot in RAW+JPEG mode. That way, I figured, I could try playing with the RAW file in Lightroom, and if I didn't like it I could always default to converting to monochrome from the JPEG in Photoshop.
Turns out I was right. It does look good in monochrome.
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 6 seconds
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 36 mm
Tripod
The Lightroom tools for monochrome are extremely intuitive, even when working in RAW. In fact, had I not known, I wouldn't have been able to tell that I was working in RAW. When I was happy with my result, I exported to JPEG. Just for comparison purposes, I did my best work on the JPEG with Photoshop to see if I liked that result any better. It wasn't even close. RAW is champion when it comes to monochrome. I couldn't get close to the amount of contrast I wanted without severe posterization.
My last step was just to experiment with a vignette in Photoshop until I liked it. There are a few things I feel I could have done better, and a couple of things I thought I wouldn't like, but turned out really good. The pawn isn't in sharpest focus. It's pretty close, but I should have been paying more attention when I set the shot up. The aperture could have been stopped down just a little more, to achieve the really distinctive hierarchy of levels of focus I was going for. And I didn't think the unfinished tops of the pieces would look good, but I think they add some character to the shot.
I may try a redux of this shot sometime with a more carefully set-up environment, etc. But now I know: for monochrome photos, don't bother with anything but RAW anymore.
