@bheath you photo looks good!!! which 35? why do you convert gh2's raws? is a question of space, speed, getting rid of xmls…?

some reading (with lots of comments, ah the people voice!!!) http://lightroomkillertips.com/2010/to-dng-or-not-to-dng/ http://photographyconcentrate.com/should-you-convert-dng/ how to DNGize http://lightroomsecrets.com/2012/03/lightroom-4-tip-new-dng-options/

DNG files are smaller (read somewhere between 10-20%), develop settings are kept inside the file instead of an adjacent "sidecar" (xml) file, "DNG format includes a checksum that can detect file corruption" and its compatibility (future proof) is maximized.

Seems conversion has some advantages. IMHO main drawback is workflow speed. If you back up (and you should) big stacks of photos, with DNG - case parameters had been modified - you would have to overwrite the whole file, while xml are tiny tiny poopoozas. Extra conversion time on import or after selection. A BIG reasonable case/cause to convert to DNG is your camera not being supported by the software of your choice. Still, the more interesting feature, under my tilt-shift point of view, is the corruption jacket; in the past I had some crooked RAWs among my photo library citizens, I fondly call those "politics".

My POV: if your back up drive is big enough (and they're cheap for sure), you don't have time to spare (nor despair), you're not already thinking in your grandchildren's legacy and you have the end of the world feeling under control, you could always convert… say later.

now? wait wait now?

gashô

PS oh I forgot to mention in some cases DNG conversion may loose some metadata.

well after the avalanche of participation I go on playing the gong: DUUUNNNGGGggg!!!!

Today (german accent trans-fassbinder-cabaret-bold-guy style) weee bRing you a fAlse hdR.
Went to the beach to see some crazy guys win money for enjoying big waves in a chunk of foam, nice! and I mean it. The hour was the least favorable for image capturing, lot of chicks though. Highlight headroom of gh3 sensor is really bad - please before start loading guns and cannons - especially if you are coming from full-frame. I saw an image was worth the out of my nose then downward movement of my index finger; I tried not to burn highlights. Funny thing while I was at it, a kid came into the frame in the right moment, well, it's not really funny.

Trying to bring back some DR, from one picture only, I exported 3 versions (2 were virtual copies) from lightroom, they're the small jpegs. HDR is not really my thing, I try to only use it when circumstances impel me or when there's going to be massive editing. Long time since my last HDR, so I decided to go back and check which program rendered an output more to my licking. Because results differ quite a bit from program to program, I took the tiffs for a walk; auto curves and wb in PS, no extra sharpening. Resized them with also free resizeit; I really have to bring here my findings on downsizing... that's for another day. In order of better to worst - remember is MY taste, I prioritized natural looking and absence of ghosts/strange gradients/artefacts straight out:

Image Fuser (free) - http://imagefuser.sourceforge.net/
Photomatrix
FDRtools (free)
Photoshop HDR

The ones I didn't even bother to bring here were luminance-hdr, HDR Darkroom and worst of all nik HDR efex pro.
Of course we cannot generalize from this poor example only. But 1 thing I can say, I've used Image Fuser for a long time and it is very nicel :)

Cheers to all, especially the ones with even spaced protuberances on their chests

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PS
BTW because you are relentless curious creatures what it is written - initial reason (this corny I am) for stealing the moment - on top of roof O AMOR AINDA EXISTE ==> LOVE STILL EXISTS

gashô

As a fashion and commercial photographer shooting primarily with the GH2 and GH3 more recently ( http://www.fotosiamo.com ), you can definitely get away with shooting great images as long as you're closer to Base ISO. I strobe majority of my shots even on location, so I don't worry about that as much.

Check out the latest image I did with the GH2 and the Olympus 45mm f/1.8. This is lit with two Profoto Acutes, one in a softbox outside the window, camera right, the other in medium stripbox camera left.

Now just gotta get more experience in video work =D

you can definitely get away with shooting great images as long as you're closer to Base ISO

@fotosiamo indeed your site is proof of it, though it is not what turns me on... I just can't seem to get used to faces with almost no skin texture, specially chicks.

latest image I did with the GH2 and the Olympus 45mm f/1.8

that's just the finest portrait made with a great lens - thanks for sharing, also set up - you squeezit well my friend. for video, the 45 focus ring is kindof tiny which makes things a bit more challenging when manual focusing (without FF) but on the other hand it also has superb IQ and bokeh. first 55 secs of this video were made with that lens and macro shots + an inverted ancient canon FL 35mm. all good

@brucker
WOW!!! sweet mother of bokeh... 3 aliens mindafuckas!!! the Dressen pic (too cool to be a film) is awesome, actually they're all awesome but the guy-poet Kakujo concentrating his energy besides the river - with help of silhouette the bird - is just... plain beautifull layers :D

I guess that the contax helps... Shuji how did you process them?

in 365 scenes from movies that dont exist also loved 20130510ED002c, 20130210, 20130309, 20130403, scene 20b of 365, 20130220 (if I was Jodorowsky the job would be yours), scene 17b of 365 20130117b DSC_5665, getting down to business

gashô

PS
funny enough when I wrote "too cool to be a film" I didn't know this series was called 365 scenes from movies that dont exist

hey jpbturbo, your name and the tiny SW characters you show remind me of this

+ nice portrait, he seems to be thinking "why the hell didn't I bring my signed beastie boys cap?!!"
would be so nit to create a PV vintage lens visual database, covering lenses most relevant aspects for taking stills and films...
are you a luthier?

gashô

Hey guys!!!
I've been checking latest open source developers (builds) and cataloging alternatives to lightroom and the kind

IMHO Rawtherapee is the most advanced, well thought, well featured and easy to use free application out there. The 4.0.11 build is stable - I'm running it on a mac - has been improved in all aspects: interface, color engine, modules and tools, etc. Certain tools, modules even, are way better (read deeply tweakable and accurate) than LR, i.e sharpening, Lab curves, color profiling and many more. On the other hand it is a no competitor in the quickness field. A good idea is to build a starting point profile (believe me makes all the difference) and from there expand on further presets and tweaks. Though for some years I wasn't able to fully squeeze RT potentiality, I wouldn't be lying if I said now surpasses LR in terms of IQ. Interface is slick and pleasant too. Just takes a bit of testing and time ;-)

Darktable with an interface similar to LR, more basic though, is very fast in the catalog handling and has interesting developing tools options. Problem is learning curve is steep, develop module gets increasingly slow, kinda accumulative and export takes too long. I also checked Photivo, Digikam and a bunch of others. Digikam is interesting but is way too slow, complexified and hard to instal; only through macports on a mac.

That's about it, all good

as I keep trying to find nice/optimized workflow for timelapse deflicker than runs natively on mac OS 10.6, I stump with this Ciemmesoft TLtools program. It is free (donationware) and though requirements are Windows XP or later, Lightroom 3.5 or later and screen resolution at least 1280×960, Mauro, the name behind the project, put this simple guide to use it in a mac with winebottler and wine (or emulators like VMware Fusion, Parallels, etc.).

Good news: it works, actually deflicker it is good. The main difference I found with LRtimelapse (free version limited to 400 stills batch) is that it can work as a standalone, better with jpegs. Directly exports uncompressed video. Can create video templates for Lightroom, 2800 and 4k, the catch here is that only through h264 codec :(

Bad News: as in version 3.4.46 doesn't work directly with Panasonic RW2s (for a fast LR integrated metadata workflow), has lots of bugs, though is supposed to be supported, I cannot make it work with DNG (I hate fucking dngs!!!) as prompts error in metadata and whatnot. In my laptop doesn't make full use of dual core processor power... probably window version is more stable and faster. Very picky with file naming, had to rename files to sequences like 0001, 0002, 0003, etc.

Anyway if you're into TL and don't have GBDeflicker (or other AE plugins) or LRtimelapse (needs lightrrom), it's totally worth checking, they webpage is reasonably well documented :D

they even have this link - a PDF guide for constructing a motorized dolly. It is in italian!!!

gashô

Hey guys, as feedback is on the weak side, je je, and at the risk of feeding my ego too much, I'll post my own "advances" on editing and workflow techniques

These are photos taken by my good friend ?lex in Nueva Arena, comunidad of the caracol La garrucha, Chiapas, Méjico. I was lucky enough to edit them. Despite the thousands of miles distance, with this collaboration we’ve been able, ?lex and I, to share; share what? the dream of life man!!! :P

Of course this is one subjective and partial POV, but I believe the images are able to transmit more than words, much more... an incredible range of subtleties, interskin irony, unspoken mysteries, gradients of truth, unsettling and surreal nightmares, poetry and beauty

TECHYness

I spent a big deal of time deciding and testing which developer to use. Capture One output was clearly where I managed best results for Canon 60D raw files. Colour control of this app is superb and a must when there are such big colour variations and nuances as in this set. The possibility of using layers inside the app (for gradients and some relight) and toggling them on/off is invaluable, something Lightroom developers could implement if they weren’t so affraid of canibalizing Photoshop. The only image edited differently was the 3rd before the last. This one had such a big DR, I had to export two different bracket versions into free opensource ImageFuser. After exporting the tifs I decided for a different workflow; I edited everything inside of Photoshop using layers as smart objects and actions with my own recipes of Color Effex and Exposure. This takes a long, long time as these are 100Mb tifs. About 40 hours work for these 32, well 31 now, we just decided to take 1 out, wonderful photographies’ journey   •   gashô

a bit offtopic and pace change but interesting and inspirationally ironic :-)

Extract of Robert Capa Interview, October of 1947

{...} That was called the best picture I ever took, I never saw the picture in the frame because the camera was far above my head {...}

Much appreciated buddy Space, can't really take the credit as I just edited them; they're my good friend ?lex's.

Funny thing is I have "my own view / photos / experience" of the place and for 5 years now hadn't being able to develop the photos... in a way, they portray same people but in very different "context", in such a sincretism they see CocaCola as a sacred beverage, are much much fearless and tough than so called "zapatistas rebels" (without the need of using the masks) and don't really give a fuck about EZLN. They're the most unite people in South America - so they say - and even narcos fear them. But truth would be nowhere in between and it would probably depend more on who you hang out with :P

Hope 1 day we can hang out together, all good • m

Okay, okay check out this - free image optimiser, for mac only and all X compatible, mavs inclusive =)