Lightroom 3

Image: 5D Mk II, EF 300 f4 L IS, f 7.1, ISO 3200, 1/250 sec.

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Lightroom 3, on the surface you wont see a lot of change, where Adobe worked their magic is under the hood.

The new engine for processing noise and sharpening has improved immensely, one of its biggest draw backs since Lightroom was first released, I prefer to do my noise reduction and a small amount of sharpening in RAW format and then complete it in 16 bit TIFF format in PS.

I went back to this image I took in Costa Rica of the of a Chestnut-Mandibled Toucan in the rain forest near Vulcan Areal, I could not believe the improvement in noise reduction that Lightroom was able to do on this ISO 3200 image, detail is maintained while almost completely removing all traces of noise, the image was cropped to about 60% of its original size.

One other big improvement is the lens correction, LR now has lens profiles that can fix distortion and fix it well. I have heard more profiles are coming, so soon you will be able to fix most lens aberrations, a nice feature.

I have always liked LR, but now it really is a great tool to have.

If you have been waiting for an improved Lightroom, now is the time.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Crop Power with the 5D Mk II

Who needs a crop camera when you can get perfectly good shots and crop them later, the top image was taken with a 5D Mk II and an EF 300 F4 IS L in Costa Rica last March, the bottom image was a 100% crop at 2808 x 1872 or approximately a 5.2 mp image that will print at 12 x 18 when carefully up scaled, both have been down scaled here to 800 x 533 for web viewing. Well a 50D would have probably come away with a better image as far as pixels on the bird, however this was taken at ISO 1250 and no noise reduction was used in camera or PP. DPP was used for post production, it was shot at such a high ISO because it was cloudy and raining, the 50D would have a hard time doing that and coming away with an image this clean. I would like to have a 1.3 crop camera like the 1D Mk III but more mega pixels and better noise levels than the 5D Mk II and we may see that very soon.

Ross Murphy Images In Light