New Software on Old Images

It is time to dust off those images you captured in the dawn of digital and reprocess them in the software from the decade of the teens.

This image, Stone and Spray was one of my very first bracketed sequences. I had heard (in May of 2005) that you could bracket exposures and capture shadows and highlights in Digital like you could in film. Without software to accomplish the reconstitution and no idea of how to do so, I captured the bracketed sequence anyway. I think I downloaded Photomatix later that year just to work on this set of images.

Fast forward 5 years and several major versions of all the software I was using and the ancient images are being revisited.  Photomatix was in it’s infancy. It is now on Version 3 something. I was using Pixmantec RAW Shooter Essentials to process my initial RAW Files. Now I use Lightroom which is also nearing version 3.  It is partly because of Lightroom’s Version 3’s 2010 release that I am writing this. The version above was reworked in the Lightroom3 public beta and the Photomatix Version 3.2 software.  Old Image – New Tricks!

If you’ve played with the public beta of Lightroom 3, you will notice that the program has changed its rendering engine. Noise and Sharpness handling differ dramatically in the beta from previous versions. This means you can go back to some of your old images from high-ISO and other issues and reprocess them for a potentially better image. 

As photographers we learn constantly. Shooting techniques improve. Our tools evolve constantly too. Our processing methods improve with time. Perhaps it is time now to dust off those old digital negatives and run some images through the process again. This time, use the advantages of improved software. Reapply techniques you’ve learned since the image was last developed. But most of all, see what you missed before.

Rikk Flohr © 2010

del.icio.us Tags: Lightroom,HDR,Photomatix

New Lightroom™ Keyword List Announced: Birds of North America

Fleeting Glimpse Images is pleased to announce the availability of a new Lightroom Keyword List. The newest list is born of the popularity of the Mammals of North America and the work I’ve done previously on the Birds of Costa Rica keyword lists.

2000+plus species of birds found in North America*, arranged in hierarchical order are prepped and ready for direct importing into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom™. Now you can quickly and easily apply species-specific keywords to your images aiding in your searching and cataloging operations.

The list is arranged alphabetically by Lightroom on import but is delineated taxonomically, putting each species into it’s respective Family.  Each Family is represented by its common name and has the Latin Family name as a synonym. The individual birds are listed by their common English name, with the Latin Genus species name being listed under the common name’s synonyms. Thus it is possible to search by Common Family Name, Family Name, Common Name, Genus or Species. Birds are also labeled and searchable by their status as Introduced, Non-breeding NA, Taxonomically Challenged, Hawaiian, Accidental, or Extinct.

Order Now

Complete information can be found on all of my keyword lists here.

Rikk Flohr © 2009

del.icio.us Tags: Keyword Lists,Lightroom,Birds,North America,Species,Genus,Family,Extinct,Accidental

Keywording is for Everyone

Consider keywording your images today-if you aren’t already.

Building a database of images with attached keywords has become easy and necessary in the world of digital capture. If you want to find a specific photo or photos in that sea of thousands of RAW and JPG files on your computer, you stand your best chance if you’ve diligently keyworded your images. Whether it is all pictures of your daughter Mary taken in 2007 or any pictures you have of hound dogs, keywords will ferret them out.

Keywording has become a hot business tool too. With all the budding photographers out there expanding their portfolios into the micro-stock photography world, having a good keyword schema is becoming critical. The more accurately and completely a person can keyword their images, the better the chance they will be seen, and possibly sell, an image or two.

Building comprehensive keyword lists is tedious and very time consuming. It requires a lot of thought, organization and, in many cases compromise.  Our language is so intertwined with cross-category words and multiple usages that keywording becomes problematic.  Homonyms are particularly difficult to deal with in a keywording strategy.

Take the example word Spring.

Is it the season? Is it the natural upwelling of water? Is it the mechanical component? Is it a mathematical description? Is it the action of leaping?

If you keyword it as the lone keyword ‘spring’ you might not get what you are searching for. Fortunately modern DAM Software gives you a solution in the form of hierarchical keyword structuring.

Natural Forms-Seasons-Spring *
Natural Forms-Water-Flowing-Spring *
Man-made-Device-Spring
Mathematics-Curved Surface – Spring
Action-Spring

*The top two are excerpted from my new Keyword Set: Natural Forms, which has just been released for sale.  When imported into a serious DAM tool like Lightroom, it can give you the ability to quickly and accurately tag your images with keywords that can provide you ease of search. Additionally, you can provide a robust keyword list for a potential stock photo file. If your software can’t manage keywords, you are missing out on a valuable tool in the use and marketing of your images.

Quick Keys to keywording: 

• Develop or download a workable keyword list(s)
• Keyword your images religiously on import
• Don’t limit yourself to a keyword or two per image
• Periodically review your list and consolidate where possible

Do this and you will be able to find and hopefully sell your images.

Order Natural Forms Keyword List for Lightroom

Rikk Flohr © 2009

del.icio.us Tags: keywords,Lightroom,stock photography,micro-stock,Natural Forms

Mammals of North America Keyword List

On the heels of the successful launch of my Birds of Costa Rica keyword list, Fleeting Glimpse Images, LLC is pleased to announce the availability of a new keywording list detailing the Mammals of North America.  Whether you are cataloging your images for Stock Photography or for your own satisfaction, this list will aid your efforts greatly. If you are illustrating in a package like CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator, you can find this list valuable for cataloging your artwork as well.

Included in the set are 440 Species and 1008 total keywords set in hierarchical structure by Family name. In the case of animals, say “Bats” for example, more generic top-level keywords are supplied. The Latin Family name is included as a synonym as are Genus and species for your searching ease. The Marine Mammals, including the cetaceans are all included as well.  Where known, I have added synonyms for common regional names. (i.e. Mountain Lion: Puma, Cougar, Panther, etc)

The list does not represent sub-species, for the most part. as they cannot always be identified by a photograph Often it requires genetic testing to determine true subspecies status.  Grizzly bear is an exception that is noted under the Brown Bear.

The file comes as a zipped text file with full installation instructions for Lightroom and is available for purchase at the Fleeting Glimpse Images website.

 
Click to order

If you shoot pictures of Mammals in North America and want to keyword your images, this list is a must have.

Rikk Flohr © 2009

del.icio.us Tags: keywords,keywording,animals,metadata,North America,mammals,Lightroom,lists

Birds of Costa Rica Keyword List

Black-crested Coquette

Keywording your photos is critical to future image management and potentially to additional revenue. To make things easier for you photographers who are traveling to Costa Rica, possibly via Worldesigns Tours, photo tour with yours truly as your guide, I am happy to announce a new offering.

Fleeting Glimpse Images, LLC is offering, for purchase, a Keyword List for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom containing the keywords for the birds of Costa Rica. The list contains 874 species, grouped by taxonomical family.  The keyword list sorts alphabetically when imported into Lightroom.

Birds are organized by Common Family Name and Common Name. Each bird also has a searchable synonym of Genus species in the Latin. A very few have additional notes as synonyms as well.  Each list is provided via email delivery with instructions for installation into Lightroom.

Whether you are on your way to Costa Rica, or already have a catalog of bird images to keyword, you will find this list aids your process greatly. Even if you haven’t been to Costa Rica, you will find that many of the birds are found throughout Central and North America.

To order the very reasonably-priced Birds of Costa Rica Keyword List, click on the button below.

Rikk Flohr © 2009

del.icio.us Tags: keywords,keyword list,Lightroom,Costa Rica,birds,birding,photography,metadata