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Adobe has just released Lightroom 3.6, a free upgrade for Lightroom 3.x users, which I mentioned the other day as having new camera-calibration profiles. In addition to assorted bug fixes, it also has new lens-correction profiles for more than 35 new lenses, and support for a bunch of new cameras:
- Canon Powershot S100
- Fuji FinePix X10
- Leica V-LUX3
- Nikon 1 J
- Nikon 1 V1
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1
- Ricoh GR Digital IV
- Samsung NX5
- Samsung NX2020
- Sony NEX-7
Details and download links available on the announcement at Adobe's Lightroom Journal blog.
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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Random Moss Lawn
It's been about six years since I've been to the Ryoanji Temple (龍安寺) in north-west Kyoto, but I think of it fondly because Fumie and I went there twice in the early years after moving here (once in the summer of 2005, and again in the fall), and because I've used this picture from there on my namecard for years.
I stopped in again the other day with Paul Barr, but it was a miserable day. It was the first day of real winter cold, but I was still dressed for autumn, and misty rain (ice/snow?) was blowing in at times on strong gusty winds. It made for dynamic lighting, but I couldn't use the camera easily when it was raining, and at all times I was freezing due to lack of proper preparations.
Still, in between the gusts of precipitation I could grab a few shots, and when it rained I warmed up my hands in my coat, so I came back with a few shots.
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Locals
Ryoanji Temple (龍安寺), Kyoto Japan
Ryoanji is known for its rock garden, but I prefer its regular garden out front, which includes a small lake with a small island near one edge. There's a small bridge onto the island that can be seen in the shot above of some of the lake's ducks.
The lake offers plenty of the photogenic susuki grass that I'm partial to..
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nature in the City
with a subtle smoothness coming from Lightroom coming from Lightroom's “negative clarity”
As I noted, the lighting was dynamic, as illustrated by these two shots in quick succession...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shaded
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sunny
Even away from the lake were picturesque tufts of the susuki grass....
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Flowing Grass
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Viewed From Below
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Reverse Angle
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Can't Decide
what color to be
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wet Rock
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Moss Bench
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Neverending Job
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Restraint and Ostentatiousness
pine and maple
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Appreciating the View
Those steps lead back from the inner temple and its rock garden, an area we didn't visit on this trip.
Rather, we continued on the path that eventually leads around the lake...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Out With Friends
At this point in checking out my photos, I felt that I had enough for a post, so I haven't looked further yet. I also realized that almost all of them would make nice desktop background images, so I just went ahead and gave them all that treatment.
To be continued...
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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
As I mentioned on the helicopter-and-rainbow post earlier in the week, I made a visit to a couple of remote mountain temples in the Takao area of north-west Kyoto. The first, the Jingoji Temple (神護寺), is accessed by walking down a long and winding flight of steps into a ravine, across a small bridge, then up an even steeper flight of windy steps on the side of the facing mountain.
The photos on this post are from the paths outside the temple area; it was really beautiful inside and I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the experience, so I'll have to dive into those photos once I can give them time.
In the photo above, I wasn't sure whether I liked the yellow leaf sticking up on the left of the frame, or the right, so I thought I'd just try both. Here's the other:
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Yellow Leaf on the Right
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/3200 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Due Diligence
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/5000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wider View
in all its glory
The photos above are a good illustration of what I consider to be The First Rule of Photography, namely that if it's not in frame, it doesn't exist.
Those photos were taken near the bottom of the ravine, where a small road parallels the river and there are some small houses and businesses.
Crossing the river, we entered the path up to the temple...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1600 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Paul Barr
just starting up
... and then two hours later after leaving the temple gate, just starting back down...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 3600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Exiting the Temple
Jingoji Temple (神護寺), Kyoto Japan
Along the way there's a small restaurant along the path offering much-needed sustenance and rest to those making the climb. Its roof was, due to the steepness of the path, at first well below the path, so I could look down on its covering of moss and leaves...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Roof
Under the roof was a bicyclist who, like anyone at this location, had climbed quite a lot of stairs to get here, and still had quite a few to go before getting back down (presumably to a bike where a whole new world of tired was waiting for him)....
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Exhausted
At one point the path makes a hairpin bend and you get a nice view across the valley to a roof peeking through the foliage on the opposite mountainside...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/800 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Opposite Hill
At the bridge crossing the ravine, I could look across to the path heading back up and saw that it was in the process of having all its leaves blown clear by a gardener...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Job
It's common in Japan to clear leaves with unrelenting aggression as if they were cigarette butts, even when the leaves clearly add to the ambiance, but in this case on a slope I can imagine they'd be slippery in the rain (and it was raining on and off while we were there, so it was a present concern).
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Attention to Detail
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Perks of the Job
friendly chat
The light was really rich all day due to thick broken clouds punctuated by sunshine and misty rain. Almost back to the car, the sun peaked out to light the moss on a tipping tree growing on the side of the mountain, and it was really pretty...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rich Light
I suppose it looks as if I tilted the camera, but it's all the trees on the slope of the hill that are tilted; the camera was level.
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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cutting Edge
of cliché captions
I took the camera with me on an errand a short walk from home the other day, and snapped a few photos. I was perhaps inspired because it was the day after this year's trip to the most-excellent Eikando Temple where Anthony had shown an eye for photography well beyond his years. Other than the errand, I had no specific plan, so just wandered.
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
I liked the color of the leaf above, though the wind made it tough to get a clear shot.
The Incline at Keage is always a pretty place...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Incline
Kyoto Japan
In the 1880s, a 20km-or-so-long canal was built from Lake Biwa (Japan's largest lake) to Kyoto, where at this location (The Incline) a pair of cars on wide rails would bring boats up and down a 30m change in altitude, to a smaller canal that brought them to the Kamo River. Boat traffic having ceased long ago, the incline is now a pleasant walkway.
Along with the canal and the sudden 30m change in altitude came Japan's first electrical generation plant, which supported Japan's first streetlights (on my street, Niomon Dori) and Japan's first street trams. The power plant has been out of use for decades, but it remains in what appears to be well-kept order.
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pipe
large enough to walk in
At Japan's first hydro-electric plant
The main building, built in the late 1880s, still stands likely as it did 100 years ago...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
All Kinds of Wrong
off center, conflicting shapes.... but not boring
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Zzzzzzz....
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Boooooring
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Thin
Back closer to home, the trees lining Jingu Michi (“Shrine Street”, which dead-ends at the Heian Shrine) were mostly laden with rust-colored shriveled dead leaves, but one tree stood apart in the same kind of glorious richness that got its brethren across the street an appearance in 2007's post “Photo Essay: Why I Hate Living in Kyoto”.
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mottled Richness
The few green leaves that remained were set off by their scarcity...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking Up
Finally, a snapshot of a pair of ducks in the canal, after futzing around with it heavily in Lightroom....
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just Ducking Around
with some over-the-top “subtle” post processing
icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.
This is a followup to April's “Important Note for Nikon D3/D700/D300 Shooters Who Use Lightroom or Photoshop” post about camera-calibration profiles for Lightroom (and Adobe Camera Raw).
It seems that the Lr3.6 beta that Adobe recently put out includes a new version (“Camera Standard v4”) for the Nikon D3, D700, and D300 that has been improved yet again. You can't blindly change from v3 to v4 because v3 is intended to be used with -0.5EV of exposure compensation in Lightroom, while v4 somehow gets around that. (I don't recall exactly why v3 required the exposure compensation, but I remember understanding that it was a problem that could not easily be solved in place, but perhaps with a code change in Lightroom 3.6, they can now handle it without requiring the artificial compensation adjustment).
In any case, v4 (and v3) are far superior to v2 and earlier, so if you have images from a D300, D700, or D3, I recommend upgrading when you can. (I don't know what other profiles might have been updated with Lr3.6, but I recall from the v3 post that the change at that time affected only profiles those three specific cameras, and not, for example for the D3s or D300s)